Maine Turnpike's Vehicle Traffic Trends Over The Years

The Maine Turnpike was opened in 1947 as the first superhighway in the United States created after World War II. Today, it carries 89.1 million vehicles per year between Kittery and Gardiner, and a lot of changes have happened since it was built.

Speed Limit History on the Maine Turnpike

According to Wikipedia, when the Maine Turnpike opened in 1947, it had a speed limit of 60 mph and only ran from Kittery to Portland. In the early 70s, it was raised to 70 mph, but it didn't last long.

In 1974, due to the oil crisis, a nationwide 55 mph speed limit was enacted, and if states didn't comply with the national speed limit, they would have Federal Highway funds withheld.

In 1987, Congress allowed states to post 65 mph limits on rural Interstate Highways and the Turnpike

In 2014, it was raised again to a 70 mph limit, but lower in busier traffic areas.

Has the 70 mph Limit Caused Accidents to Rise?

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The Maine Turnpike Authority does not release data on the number of accidents on the Turnpike. What they do release is the number of calls received at the Maine Turnpike Authority's Traffic Management & Communications Center, which keeps data from 2016 2016 to 2022. That data contains the number of calls for service for incidents, which includes accidents and other roadside issues.

Here's the breakdown:

Maine Turnpike Calls for Service by Year:

2016: 34,157 calls

2017: 33,294 calls

2018: 29,390 calls

2019: 32,909 calls

2020: 21,634 calls

2021: 23,440 calls

2022: 22,772 calls

Based solely on this information, it seems consistently around 34 to 29 thousand calls each year until you get to 2020, when COVID-19 kept many people at home and fewer vehicles on the Maine Turnpike.

So has the 70 MPH speed limit created a rise in accidents? By these numbers, it appears it has not caused a rise in accidents. Without 2023 and 2024 data, it's hard to say definitively without more data, but calls steadily declined up to 2022.