PORTLAND (AP) – Less than 3 percent of Mainers walk to work each day. But that number could get a boost from a new policy at the Maine Department of Transportation.

The DOT in January started incorporating a “sidewalk analysis” into all new highway projects it designs. Now, those projects will include sidewalks where analyses show they are warranted, said Dan Stewart, the department’s bicycle and pedestrian program manager.

The policy, Stewart said, should result in more sidewalks and better walking conditions around the state.

“If there is a need for sidewalks, we will do them,” Stewart said.

Eighty percent of Mainers drive alone to get to work, according to 2003 statistics from the Census Bureau. About 2.8 percent of Mainers walk to work, a number that includes Heeth Grantham of Portland.

Grantham, 35, walks two miles from his home to his job at a video production company in South Portland. He’s been walking the route over the Casco Bay Bridge every day since his car died and he decided to not replace it three years ago.

Grantham said more sidewalks would be welcome by people like him who choose to walk for reasons ranging from fuel conservation to physical fitness to making a close connection to the outdoors.

“It completely negates the need to go to a gym,” Grantham said.

Tim Bolton, 59, of Augusta has been making a brisk 15-minute walk each day for 14 years to his job at the Department of Transportation. He grew up in Manhattan in New York City, where most people walk. Maine, he said, can be hazardous because pedestrians and sidewalks are scarce.

“Drivers in Maine are not oriented to pedestrians, so you have to make sure you have eye contact with the driver before crossing,” he said.

Conditions for walkers have been slowly improving in Maine, Stewart said.

In 1999, the state adopted rules to allow the construction of road shoulders at least 3 feet wide to offer safer passage for pedestrians and bicyclists.

By 2004, the DOT was building 116 miles of road shoulders a year, compared to just 28 miles five years earlier.

Starting this year, all new DOT projects will include an analysis of pedestrian needs. The state will also pay for sidewalk construction costs in so-called “village areas,” or densely developed areas with stores and houses, that in the past were the financial responsibility of municipalities, Stewart said.