OGUNQUIT -- A study to determine whether drivers are getting off the Maine Turnpike and onto roads in Wells, Ogunquit and York to avoid paying $1.75 at the York toll plaza shows such diversion is minimal.

Roughly 2 percent of turnpike users diverted to roads such as U.S. Route 1 on the day of the study, and their vehicles constituted 4 percent to 5 percent of the traffic on those roads.

Turnpike officials announced the findings Wednesday night at a meeting with selectmen from those York County towns. Some town officials questioned whether the study was accurate, voicing objections including that it was done on a rainy day in August.

But turnpike officials said it rained for only a short time during the study period, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Aug. 10.

Dan Paradee, spokesman for the Maine Turnpike Authority, acknowledged the study was "a snapshot" of traffic on the side roads but said, "it's probably the most accurate snapshot that has ever been taken" to study the diversion of traffic from the York toll plaza.

The study was the second done by the turnpike authority to explore the contention by residents of the three coastal towns that cars and trucks are clogging their streets as drivers avoid the turnpike's priciest toll plaza.

But with the study showing the amount of diverted traffic between 4 percent and 5 percent, that's not so much of a concern, said Paul Godfrey, a traffic engineer with HNTB Corp., the Boston-based engineering firm that did the study.

"We don't see it as a level we believe is extraordinarily high," Godfrey told the selectmen.

HNTB did a diversion study in the same area in October of 2006. That study also showed that traffic diversion was minimal.

The towns contended the study was not comprehensive enough and was done at the wrong time of year, so the authority decided to take broader look at the issue last summer.

The 2006 study tracked just license plates; the one done in August also involved interviews with drivers, to determine why they were on local roads instead of the turnpike.

Drivers were surveyed on northbound U.S. Route 1 in York, on southbound U.S. Route 1 in Wells, on Route 4 in Berwick, and on Route 236 in Eliot.

Of the 12,760 vehicles counted on U.S. Route 1 in York that day, 580 -- 4.6 percent -- diverted from the turnpike.

Of the 13,220 vehicles counted on U.S. Route 1 in Wells, 620 of the drivers -- 4.7 percent -- were avoiding the turnpike.

In Berwick, 330 vehicles -- 4.9 percent of the 6,760 counted -- were considered diverted traffic. And in Eliot, 380 vehicles -- 4.2 percent of the 9,100 vehicles counted -- had diverted from the turnpike, the study showed.

Those vehicles were a miniscule number of the total traveling on the turnpike in that area on that day.

Of the 51,190 drivers traveling north, 1.9 percent diverted to alternative routes. Of the 35,410 drivers headed south on the turnpike, 2.7 percent switched to alternative routes.

Paradee said the turnpike authority has always maintained that diversions are minimal because while getting off the turnpike can save money, it costs time, particularly in the summer tourist season.

If northbound drivers want to avoid paying $1.75 at the York toll plaza, they can get off the interstate at Exit 7 in York, which is just before the toll plaza, and take U.S. Route 1 to Exit 19 in Wells, paying only 60 cents to re-enter the turnpike there.

Southbound drivers can get off in Wells and get on the interstate again at Exit 7, saving the full $1.75. However, that route takes about 30 minutes, compared with about 13 minutes on the turnpike.

One reason the turnpike authority has been studying the issue is that it has a $35 million proposal to move and rebuild the 39-year-old York toll plaza by 2009.

The plaza needs to be replaced to become more efficient, and because it's on a wetland and is sinking, the authority has said.

Turnpike officials said Wednesday that they have not yet come up with a list of possible sites, but that the new location likely will be somewhere between the current toll plaza and Exit 19 in Wells.

Locations south of the current plaza don't meet engineering specifications, turnpike officials said.