SCARBOROUGH, MAINE – State Legislative candidate Sean Flaherty says traffic congestion is one of the issues he heard most frequently as he campaigns door to door.

“This month, the burning issue on people’s minds is the Wall Street. But if you take conversations I’ve had in August into account too, traffic concerns are right up there.” he said.

Flaherty, who is running for Maine House of Representatives in District 127 for Scarborough, says people have specific concerns about Route One, Payne Road near the new Cabela’s store, and also the Oak Hill intersection.

“People want to know what is going to happen at Oak Hill. They have many suggestions about re-routing traffic down the Eastern Road, or creating additional lanes of width, and other thoughts,” said Flaherty, a 2003 graduate of Scarborough High. “The town has changed so much in the past 20 years since most of us have grown up here. We have to make sure that our local and state government helps with solutions.”

Flaherty says he hears from people concerned about how crowded Route One is, how hard it is to get on to Route One and off into shops or offices.  The Payne Road concern has to do with Cabela’s and that road now being as busy, for people heading to Portland or to the Mall, as Route One or even the Turnpike.

“People want to know if I will fight for transportation funds if I am elected to the Maine House of Representatives this fall, and I will,” Flaherty said. “They want Payne Road bolstered with either extra lanes, or sidewalks, or another traffic light or two. Route One, on the other hand, as one person told me, is kind of like the weather–’Everybody complains, but nobody does anything about it!’”

Flaherty said he will give transportation issues a high priority if elected to the Maine Legislature.  Specifically, he will address proposals for regional transit including Park & Rides to give people more options in getting too and from work, improving the flow of traffic through the Oak Hill intersection with the development of new housing projects off of Black Point Road, and fixing deteriorating roads in neighborhoods like the Old Millbrook and Pleasant Hill areas.

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