I am writing to support your proposed legislation to increase
the truckweight limit on the interstate. As the Superintendent of
the BangorSchool Department, I have the responsibility of
overseeing school-hometransportation for nearly 4,000 students to
ten different Bangor Schools.Our City has five PreK to Grade 3
schools, two Grade 4 & 5 schools, twoMiddle Schools inc luding
Grades 6-8, and one high school servingstudents in Grades 9-12. The
PreK through Grade 8 schools aredistricted based on neighborhoods.
In order to make our transportationroutes to and from school safer,
we fully support the larger trucksprimarily traveling on the
interstate and not throughout the City streets.The Bangor School
Department has been rated as a higher performingand efficient
school system through a Maine State Legislature fundedstudy
completed by David Silvernail at the Center for Educational
PolicyApplied Research and Evaluation (CEPARE). In addition, the
BangorSchool Department has :been used as a model for
transportationefficiency and effectiveness in the Maine School
funding formula calledEssential Programs and Services (EPS).One of
the main reasons, our transportation to and from school isefficient
and effective is due to our policy of setting walking
distances.Students in K-Grade 3 walk to school if they live within
one mile from the_school. .Students in Grades 4-8 walk to school if
they live within 0Ile anda half mile from school and students in
Grades 9-12 that live within oneand three quarter miles walk to
school. Therefore, numerous Bangorstudents are walking to and from,
school and navigating busyintersections of city roads in which
these 100,000 pound t rucks aretraveling because they cannot be on
the interstate.
8/4/2019 Bangor School Department Letter of Support
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The Bangor Police Department does provide crossing guards for
studentsin kindergarten through Grade 5. The former crossing guard
provider,Seacoast Security, shared that they provided specialized
training for thecrossing guards regarding large t rucks on city
streets. These trucks takelonger to stop and start which impacts
the safety of the students .Further, young children are often int
rigued by large trucks and somehave been known to dart out into the
road trying to get the truck driverto honk the horn. Students in
Grades 6 - 12 must cross without theassistance of a guard. Both of
these situations are of concern forstudents' safety.Cyr Bus is our
contracted bus provider. One of the managers wasrecently
interviewed about the t ruck limit and larger trucks being on
thecity streets. The manager immediately identified Hammond Street
as aproblematic area. She asked that these trucks be removed from
this areadue to their slow traffic patterns. In addition, the
weight of the truckscauses potholes and street damage. Wheelchair
bound students, evenwhen strapped in on the bus, are bounced around
and this creates anextremely uncomfortable and potentially unsafe
bus ride.Thank you, Senator Collins, for your dedication and effort
to rectify thissafety situation in Maine. Please know that school
children throughoutthe State will be in safer environments when
traveling to and from schoolif this legislation is passed.
