Maine

[fwydriver405]

When do they use the shoulder lane on the Piscataqua River Bridge?  I got caught in some stop and go traffic approaching it, only to find that the lane was closed.  There probably would have been a lot less delay had it been open.  If it's not used for peak weekend/holiday traffic, then what is it used for?

The status of the lanes can also be viewed on the New England 511 website as well, with "Message Signs" enabled.

Example of what the New England 511 displays when breakdown lane travel is active, as shown because of a crash on I-95 Northbound in Portsmouth Exit 7 blocking the left two lanes. Only the worded message part is shown here, not the lane use part of the sign.

The status of the travel time signs in Maine can also be viewed here as well for some reason, they just either show the number or the travel time status depending on the type of the sign.

[shadyjay]

Looks like the Maine Turnpike wants some new food vendors at its plazas:

https://www.pressherald.com/2025/07/03/maine-turnpike-courts-shake-shack-chick-fil-a-for-service-plaza-upgrades/?fbclid=IwY2xjawLfuSFleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFQaXl0Q1pHUDI4VXJDM21pAR68p-PsqjPD_Se9iqXn5hsMOrj-GdJ7b-tj4wvzp-20ZJIbS3wTcW3xEkrNsg_aem_JdaPLEQG2XAGI-GGL92jRQ

I can't believe they'd consider Chick-Fill-A, considering their policy of not being open on Sundays.  Sunday is a very busy travel day on the turnpike, if not the busiest day of the week (at least during the summer).  Did we not learn anything from the New York Thruway getting Chick-Fill-A and now some of their plazas have no open food service on Sundays? 

[vdeane]

Looks like the Maine Turnpike wants some new food vendors at its plazas:

https://www.pressherald.com/2025/07/03/maine-turnpike-courts-shake-shack-chick-fil-a-for-service-plaza-upgrades/?fbclid=IwY2xjawLfuSFleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFQaXl0Q1pHUDI4VXJDM21pAR68p-PsqjPD_Se9iqXn5hsMOrj-GdJ7b-tj4wvzp-20ZJIbS3wTcW3xEkrNsg_aem_JdaPLEQG2XAGI-GGL92jRQ

I can't believe they'd consider Chick-Fill-A, considering their policy of not being open on Sundays.  Sunday is a very busy travel day on the turnpike, if not the busiest day of the week (at least during the summer).  Did we not learn anything from the New York Thruway getting Chick-Fill-A and now some of their plazas have no open food service on Sundays? 

Paywalled.

I don't know what they're thinking.  Not only is CFA closed on Sunday (hopefully they would only be in NB service areas, but still), but I don't think "fast casual" places work in service areas.  Service area "food concepts" need to be fast, able to handle lots of customers at once and still get everyone's food to them quickly.  Places that take 10-15 minutes to make your food even when there aren't other customers don't work for that.  There's a reason it takes forever to get food at the new Thruway service areas, to the point where IMO it isn't worth bothering - if you have 1-1.5 hours to take for lunch, you may as well get off and go to a sit-down restaurant!

Even Sbarro can get backed up with too many travelers.  Hopefully whoever was more than one person behind me liked meat lovers or veggie pizza, because I got some of the last slices of cheese and pepperoni.  At 11 AM (it was Sunday).

[Rothman]

CFA seems to be doing okay for NYSTA...

[vdeane]

CFA seems to be doing okay for NYSTA...

I don't know what the wait times there are, though they always look very busy on days that aren't Sunday.  The URL also mentions Shake Shack, which I have heard of wait time issues on the Thruway; I've tried to eat at the one in Clifton Springs three times but only got around to it yesterday, at 10:45 AM before it got busy; the other two times I saw the crowd and deemed it "unacceptable risk", bailing for pizza or hot dogs at the convenience store.  Wait time wasn't bad with only one person in front of me, and the burger and shake were good, but the fries were dry.

I had even worse luck with the Panera Bread at Pattersonville; that one involved cancelling the order and disputing the card charges and microwaving a convivence store breakfast sandwich instead.  Pro tip: the times listed on the microwaves there are wrong and the sandwich was way too hot when I used their recommended time.