Summertime traffic is something most Mainers must contend with, as the state gets millions of visitors who come to enjoy the rugged scenery and pleasant weather each May through October.
Mount Desert Island especially draws big numbers, as hundreds of thousands of tourists arrive each month to visit Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor’s scenic seaside downtown. The island’s 10,000 or so residents, seasonal workers and Mainers who commute to the island for work year-round all jostle for position as cars and campers flow through Ellsworth and Trenton to MDI, clogging the roads and filling up parking spots.
The seasonal difference is so great that vehicle traffic coming and going from MDI more than doubles in the summer, according to traffic data compiled by Maine Department of Transportation.
Over the first week of January of this year, more than 70,000 vehicle trips crossed the Route 3 causeway between Trenton and MDI, while over the first week of July there were more than 167,000 vehicle trips — for a seasonal increase of more than 96,000 such trips — coming and going from the island. That represents an increase of 136 percent.
That’s more than the seasonal increase of 17 years ago, in 2008, when Maine DOT first began collecting traffic data at the causeway. That year, the seasonal change was exactly double. The first week of January that year had 66,000 vehicle trips across the causeway, while six months later, it rose to more than 133,000 trips — an increase of 101 percent.
But despite the increased seasonal pressure on MDI’s roads, there are ways to avoid the worst of the congestion, and to ease the stress and possible expense of finding a place to park.
One way to avoid the congestion of MDI is to stay away from the island altogether between early May and late October. For people who prefer to do this, it is not just car congestion that they find off-putting, but also throngs of tourists on hiking trails or on village sidewalks.
Island Explorer bus
For those who find driving to be the main hassle, but still want to visit MDI, another way of getting there is to use the free Island Explorer bus system, which was created in 1999 specifically to reduce car congestion and pollution on the island. The system is funded mainly by federal grants and private donations, and offers free rides from Trenton to and around the island.
Visitors from beyond Ellsworth have to find their own way through the city, where traffic to and from MDI is only part of the city’s summer traffic congestion, but when they get to the Acadia Gateway Center site in Trenton they can park and ride the bus to Bar Harbor and other parts of the island, including many locations in Acadia National Park.
The new Acadia Gateway Center has not yet opened, though it is expected to sometime this summer. But Island Explorer buses are running from the site and parking there is free. This is a viable option for visitors who are not in a hurry, as the buses make multiple stops along each route. Maps and timetables for each of the system’s 10 routes, which operate from late June through mid-October, can be found online at exploreacadia.com.
Avoid rush hour
Motorists who want to drive themselves to MDI can still reduce their chances of getting stuck in traffic by driving at less busy times of the day.
There is less commuter traffic on and off the island on weekends, even in the summer, so getting an early-ish start and getting to MDI by 9 a.m. on a Saturday or Sunday typically helps to avoid traffic, according to Maine DOT data. There is always a weekday afternoon rush hour off MDI, roughly between 2 and 5 p.m., and sometimes a smaller late-afternoon rush on weekends, too, the data indicates.
It is important to note that it is often during rush hour that vehicle crashes happen, and when they occur along the causeway section of Route 3, it can bring all traffic to a halt on and off the island, or slow things to a crawl for an hour or more. Many, but not all, of the accidents that occur on the causeway happen during the afternoon rush hour off MDI, according to Maine DOT crash data.
Alternate Routes
Getting across the causeway is not the only challenge to navigating a visit to MDI, however. Crashes can happen elsewhere too, though there are alternate routes to take on either side of the causeway if a road is clogged or closed.
Between the causeway and Ellsworth, many local drivers use Route 230 and Goose Cove Road in Trenton to get back and forth to the island. Between the causeway and downtown Bar Harbor, Crooked Road between the villages of Town Hill and Hulls Cove offers a scenic option past marshes and farmland.
For hikers, bikers or motorists looking to visit Acadia’s Sand Beach from downtown Bar Harbor, Schooner Head Road offers an alternative that connects to a trail that leads to the eastern end of the beach. Parking at Schooner Head is limited, but you can drive directly back to downtown Bar Harbor from there without having to take the longer route back via Park Loop Road past Thunder Hole.
Parking
Parking in general is a challenge on MDI in the summer — especially for recreational vehicles which are not allowed in many parking areas both in and outside Acadia because of their size.
Parking at popular spots in Acadia can be hard to find, while spillover parking alongside roads is not allowed in some locations. For Cadillac Mountain, reservations are required. Visiting popular spots in Acadia earlier in the morning or later in the afternoon or evening can help make parking easier to find.
Bar Harbor charges for parking downtown from mid-May through October, but at two different rates. In short, parking spots closer to the commercial downtown waterfront are more expensive than those further away. Spots further out Main, Cottage or West streets cost $2 an hour, while those closer to the commercial waterfront cost $4 per hour. Motorists can use the ParkMobile app to pay for parking, but the app charges a $0.35 transaction fee for each purchase.
There is no free daytime parking for visitors in downtown Bar Harbor in the summer except for spots specifically reserved for customers at specific businesses.
Island villages such as Southwest Harbor and Northeast Harbor also can be congested in summer, with parking hard to come by. Public parking spaces are free of charge in these towns, though the towns do enforce time limits.
