In 2005, David Willauer , a Traffic analyst for the Greater Portland Council of Governments, was asked by the City to survey its traffic calming measures to determine if they were working well.

Willauer's draft report was released to the DPW in 2006. It said things were a mess : speed humps should not have been installed on Stevens and Capisic Streets, and stop sign installations were out of control. Alarmingly, the City was ignoring its own Traffic Calming Ordinance in order to speed up traffic calming installations! If things took too long, the Ordinance was just ignored.

More disturbing,  he also reported that City employees , especially in the DPW, were very upset with what they saw as usurpation of their professional expertise by the City Council. They were being directed in detail as to what to do, a lot of which was illegal or  outside of recommended traffic engineering practice. It was a situation of comply or be fired.

Essentially, the Council was never willing to say “no” to the public if they wanted stop signs or other physical devices ( removable speed tables)  installed anywhere on their streets. Traffic engineering and traffic calming in Portland was being run by politicians who had little or no experience in the field, but a vested interest in getting re-elected. 

This “draft “ report was sent to City Hall, where it was quashed . It sat there for two years, the City saying “it was under review”, calling it a "draft" even though it wasn't, and even though a public document, they would not release it.

In late 2007 the “draft” report was sent back to Willauer, and he was told  to remove all the negative information about the illegal installations and the poor morale at DPW.

He did under some protest, then sent the redacted report back to City Hall, whereupon they soon released it as the "truth".

That is a felony.

I and Lucas Colavecchio of WGME TV had to file a FIOA request to get it; only then were copies supplied. The Maine Attorney General's office was going to step in, and the City didn't want that. Too newsworthy I guess, too much light shining in. That is the copy I got from the City- the "nice" one.

Thankfully, I already had a copy of the original, unbeknownst to the City.

              Example: from the 2006 study                        From the 2008 redacted study 

See how easy it is to makes thing sound better? Instead of following its own ordinances, the City Council just ignores them.  Instead of "all" the projects, it's now just "most".  The Ordinance says that all calming petitions must go through the process. The Council  ignores that.

The "different process" mentioned is just the councilor insisting to the DPW that they toe the line, and do what they (DPW) are told to do: ignore the regulations.

That Portland’s Traffic Calming ordinance is contained in the Portland Code of Ordinances in Chapter 28-250" may be the case, but it doesn't mean the Council is following it. Big difference!

Both of the PCOG Traffic Calming Studies can be seen here in their entirety, in PDF:

The 2005 original with all the deletions                      The 2008 redacted "study" PDF
                    marked up: PDF   

Things to note in the 2005 report : all the redactions : removal of which makes it sound so much better.

Page 5, 3rd para : "During the time this study was being done, a different process for installing stop signs outside the traffic calming ordinance process was established."

Page 20, first para: "City Councilors have become more involved in traffic calming requests, leading to new ways of requesting projects and departures from the engineering standards set forth in Chapter 28 “Traffic and Motor Vehicles” of the Portland Code of Ordinances. In particular, stop signs have been installed that do not meet the thresholds established in the ordinance and do not meet MUTCD warrant analysis."