It is no secret why Franklin Street was chosen for the Arterial project. The city could clear out blighted neighborhoods and allow greater automobile access to the city. Auto access to the city was an integral part of the downtown rehabilitation plans of the 1960’s. The 1967 General Neighborhood Renewal Plan and the 1968 Maine Way Plan were focused on the economic revitalization of Portland’s downtown. The 1967 report is concerned with outside economic activity competing with Portland, especially because it has a compact downtown on a Peninsula. Other areas off from the Peninsula could offer better access and free parking, like strip malls. Traffic is an important part of the plan, “The traffic circulation in the Downtown area is inefficient. Traffic movement is hindered by narrow, discontinuous streets, unsynchronized traffic signalization, curb parking, steep topography” (Victor Gruen Associates 1967, p.1-3). Better access to downtown is the proposed solution, “Improvement of access to Downtown by completely rebuilding Franklin Street and by converting a renovated High Street and a renovated State Street to a one-way pair” (Victor Gruen Associates 1967, p.1-6). If the movement of vehicles in and out of the city is important then it is also important that they have someplace to put those vehicles, "There are insufficient parking facilities in the Downtown area to serve the large number of retail stores, offices and public buildings located there. In 1965, 5,724,000 square feet of floor area requiring parking in the Downtown area was served by only 4,242 parking spaces. Downtown Portland, therefore has an extremely low parking ratio of 0.81 cars per 1,000 square feet of floor area" (Victor Gruen Associates 1967, p.III-3).

            Franklin Street was also chosen because it is one of the few streets in the area that run the width of the Peninsula from the proposed 295 Interstate to Commercial Street. In addition it runs through the center of Bayside, a neighborhood in need of rehabilitation. Franklin Street in conjunction with State and High Streets would bracket the downtown area.   

            For the most part there was little opposition to the Franklin Arterial plan. But the plan did have some critics, “Councilor Popkins Zakarian warned Monday night the proposed Franklin Street arterial highway will be ‘cutting the city in half’” (Fournier 1968, p.1). Zakarian went on further to compare it to the Berlin Wall separating East and West Berlin. He also proposed tunneling the artery under the city even if not the entire length.

            The Franklin Arterial was built for the sole purpose of moving traffic in and out of the city in hopes of revitalizing the downtown area. The problem is that some parts of the city, like Franklin Street, are sacrificed  for the sake of expediency. It was initially planned to be a four lane arterial with additions at a later date for up to four more lanes. By definition an arterial is, “Similar in function to freeways but with at-grade intersections and direct access to abutting property. In practice, access is usually limited to intersections at one-half to one-mile intervals” (Jacobs, MacDonald, Rofe 2002, p.91). Essentially it is a traffic street, for quick access in and out of the city from Interstate 295. The Franklin Arterial has two lanes in each direction with very few abutting properties. The exceptions are two apartment buildings found between Cumberland and Congress Streets and an office building at 15 Franklin Street near Commercial Street. Originally Franklin Street was a residential street of 66 feet in width (Victor Gruen Associates 1967). The Arterial is much larger, at its widest point 170 feet, more than two and a half times its original size (O’Brien 1966, p.1). There are no sidewalks; the only feature that keeps the street from being a complete loss is the tree-lined median; except this is not meant to be used because it has no access for pedestrians. It is in fact a symbolic gesture of a park or a public place.

Residents wishing to cross the arterial have worn their own paths because of the lack of sidewalks. Along much of the street are fences, indicating that people are not meant to cross there. Instead residents are supposed to use the few and far between crosswalks, but there is still a safety issue. The arterial was developed with the automobile in mind only. This means that there are high volumes of traffic traveling at 35 MPH and sometimes even faster. Residents in the east end have voiced concerns about allowing their children to walk into downtown because of the arterial. The arterial acts like a wall to the east end community. Schools, shopping, libraries and many other city services are available in downtown and the arterial cuts the neighborhood off from them. Residents are either forced to cross the dangerous road or have an automobile. Much like suburbanites many in city residents are dependent on their cars. In 1985 a resident of the east end was killed while crossing the Franklin Arterial. Streetlights had been removed from in between intersections and the lack of lighting may have been a part of the accident (Cohen 1985, p.15). Nonetheless the arterial is a dangerous place for pedestrians.