OT It's time to get serious about Portland's traffic (Guest opinion

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.oregonlive.com/v1/articles/20882710/its_time_to_get_serious_about.amp


Portland rush hour traffic crawls eastbound on Oregon 26 near Sylvan

Tammy Baney, Oregon's Transportation Commission Chair, got it right. It's time to get serious about reducing road congestion in the Portland area. As business leaders, we see the impact traffic has on our employees, our customers and our bottom line. Portland's traffic not only creates challenges for local businesses and commuters, but also makes it difficult for producers across the state to move their goods predictably, reliably and efficiently through the metro area.

In 2014, congestion cost businesses and families $1.8 billion in wasted time and fuel. With the Portland region growing at record pace, the problem is worsening every day. By 2040, congestion is projected to increase by more than 30 percent at an even higher cost to Oregon's economy.

In 2016, we convened a task force of leaders from a wide range of business sectors to identify ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while keeping Oregon's economy and businesses healthy and competitive. Reducing congestion is one of those strategies. It will reduce emissions, improve air quality in neighborhoods adjacent to freeways and increase the movement of freight critical to Oregon's businesses.

Building more roads alone won't solve our traffic problem. But putting a price on using road during peak hours of the day will.

"Congestion Pricing" creates incentives for drivers to use alternate modes of transportation or shift discretionary driving to less crowded times of the day. Designed correctly, congestion pricing will result in more efficient use of our transportation system.

With today's technologies, we can collect tolls without interrupting the flow of traffic and design systems to ease the financial burden for low-income Oregonians. Versions of congestion pricing have been used successfully in 14 states and internationally in cities such as London and Stockholm.

After a year of deliberation, the task force identified reducing road congestion as our highest priority action. To get people and freight moving more efficiently, we recommended the legislature direct the Oregon Transportation Commission to design and implement congestion pricing and make complementary investments to improve transit in the Portland area. Transportation makes up 37 percent of Oregon's greenhouse gas emissions and those emissions are expected to grow if we don't address the problem.

The Legislature's Joint Committee on Transportation Preservation and Modernization is on the right track. The Oregon Transportation Commission should work closely with Metro, the City of Portland and TriMet to create a pricing program that includes dynamic highway tolling, cordon pricing and peak-hour parking fees.

Conservation organizations, business leaders and health, housing and human service providers have testified in support of congestion pricing. We urge legislators to pass a transportation bill that includes bold action on congestion pricing. Doing so will be good for Oregon's economy, job base and quality of life.

 

Sounds like a bunch of horseshit. This is only going to clog up the roads more with slowed traffic. And if someone doesn't have a choice of working 9 to 5, then they can't really avoid a congestion fee, or toll, or charge, or whatever the fuck they want to call it.

People are still going to take their cars to work; especially when they see just how screwed up and over-crowded Portland's mass transit system is. So this will do nothing other than put money into the government's pocket instead of the citizen's. It's just a scam.

This.

 

This is the kind of thinking you get when one party controls the governor's office for thirty years. That's a long time for one party to be able to stack the various commissions and courts with like-minded people and write all of the administrative rules that government operates on. Read the Transportation Planning Rule if you want to understand why we're in a gridlock situation on our highways. It's basically mandated in order to social engineer horse crap like this.

 

I'd like to at least see them reinforce and rebuild parts of the I-5 bridge over the Columbia. That would be something. But have you heard that joke about the Oregonian and Washington arguing about road constructions costs? Yeah. I have too. It's not very funny.

This State won't do shit about these kinds of problems until it reaches out and bites them in the ass. Earthquake anyone?

 

Then just curious, what would you do to relieve the stress of the gridlock in the major urban areas? The planning for the current traffic infrastructure, is what, close to 50 years old? Portland traffic next to Seattle is already among the worst in the entire nation, There are certain problems we have to face and this is one of them, I realize we live in a very geographically odd nexus stuck between two huge rivers, but there are certain civic improvements we HAVE to make. The good part is we just build on the planning that already came before it. We have a great light rail system. One of the best on the west coast. These things can be done. It just takes foresight and planning.

 

SLY FOR THE WIN!

 

Ultra-Light Mosquito Electric Helicopter....

 

What about a water taxi, or Ferry service across the Columbia? One for cars and/or one for people.

Not sure how many taxis you would need to make a significant impact though.

 

Great idea! It works in Seattle. I did a one hour commute (1 way) for 9 months. 30 minutes was spent on the ferry. It was fricken COOL. Drive 10 minutes down and park in the lot. Walk into the ferry, kick back, and have a nice leisurely trip across the water. Then drove my car on the other side to work. If I was running late, or was lazy, I'd just drive my car across(for a lot more money though....) Fun times!

 

And surely there are some local shipping yards that could build the Ferry. Keep it local, and employ people locally to do it. Win-Win.

 

Can I vote no, now?

 

I recently got back from a month long road trip around a large part of America. It honest to God seemed like any city of any size in virtually every state I drove through had freeway construction or freeway upgrades going on. Miles upon miles upon miles of it. Even many of the smaller towns along the interstates were upgrading ramps and access points. I literally saw no light rail projects and I have to wonder if other states even know what a bike lane is. There's billions of tax dollars being spent around this country on roads and highways......except in Oregon. And many of these states are chronically listed as some of the poorest, most economically disadvantaged states in the country. Sly is correct. Our "smarter than us" state government is hellbent on forcing Oregonians to use mass transit and bicycles despite strong evidence it is not wanted. What a waste of time and money.......and look where it got us.

 

Why the hell I-5, 26, I-205, I-84 run into Portland was always a big screw up to me. Having them clutter up the Willamette river bank is even worse.
You really need to reroute those Highways way around the city and have feeder expressways into the City from the surrounding Suburbs and the Skirting Interstates.

Almost sixty years ago I drove to work everyday from West Linn to downtown. About 22 minutes to make the commute, one light in Oswego and one at Dunthorpe that was always green.
Now the commute is impossible.

Portland ripped out a pretty good transport system about 60 years ago to give priority to the auto. Since then their idea of traffic improvements has been more traffic lights, and huge amounts spent on Max.
Time to do a system design or it will be unlivable as you can already see happening.

Of course this is what you get with uncontrolled and unplanned immigration and grow forever policies.

 

Gotta agree with you on the immigration issue. Every effing Californian should have been turned away at the Oregon border starting 50 years ago. Now look at the mess........