AUBURN — Speed is the next problem to be fixed at the intersection of Route 4 and Lake Shore Drive, neighbors and traffic engineers said Thursday.

New turning lanes have made the intersection safer, but the next step should be slowing down traffic, most agreed. 

“Coming from the Turner area, everybody is doing 60 mph,” said Betsy Way of Hartford. “Then they get to this area, the residential area, and the speed limit slows down. But the people don’t and if you go the speed limit, they pass you like you are standing still. I don’t have the answers, either. All I know is that I’ve been hit twice on this frigging road.”

The city of Auburn and the Maine Department of Transportation on Thursday kicked off a summer-long study aimed at making the road safer, both at Lake Shore Drive and farther south near the Lake Auburn boat launch. The informational session at Central Maine Community College drew about 25 people, most of whom live near or drive routinely on Route 4.

The roadway north of Auburn has long been considered a high-crash location, from Lake Auburn to the Turner line, with more than 14 collisions between 2011 and 2014.

Crews last summer added a turning lane at Lake Shore Drive with plans to repaint the lines and transform the four-lane road with wide shoulders to a four-lane road with a two-way center lane.

Ed Hanscom, who heads the Maine DOT’s Transportation Analysis Section, said the new lanes have dropped the Lake Shore Drive intersection out of the high-crash rating.

John Wilson, of Johnson Hill Road, said he can see the difference.

“It has made our lives much nicer and much safer,” he said. “I hope we’ve all learned something.”

But the road still gets 19,000 trips daily and most ignore posted speed limits.

“I’d love to have someone come by and clock people coming by my house because I know they are going faster,” said Deb Desjardins, who lives on Route 4. “The problem is not the road. It’s the speed — and the people. This area needs some work on the streets themselves and directing the traffic.”

Hanscom and Auburn City Engineer Dan Goyette said they would combine Thursday’s comments with past studies and new traffic data to come up with a report and some more suggested fixes for the road. Hanscom said he expects to host another meeting in September.

Recommendations on Thursday night ranged from extending the turning lanes from Lake Shore Drive south to Lake Auburn and north to the Turner line, adding roundabouts at Lake Shore Drive and the Lake Auburn boat launch and reducing the roads from four travel lanes to two with a center turning lane.

Others suggested making Turner Street one-way southbound from its Center Street intersection. Several people said northbound drivers have no business trying to turn onto Center Street.

“We absolutely need to shut that down, block it off and do not let traffic get in there,” said Gordon Willoughby, of Dillingham Hill Road. “There may not be a lot of crashes there, but the near misses are daily.”

staylor@sunjournal.com