You also might want to look into the State funding for Schoosl and where that money goes. Just a clue, it is a big Belt around Portland sucks up most of the money.
Tolls are made to pay for updating infrastructure though... not to prevent the existing from driving.... thats just absurd... Lets just start taxing us for doing what we have been doing without any improvements to the situation... Awesome....
Well, I understand that point of view, of course. But taxing you for using the freeway WILL improve the situation - because some fraction of you won't want to pay the tax. It's not a great solution - it's a very regressive tax. But building more freeways is not a great solution either. In fact in many ways it's an awful solution. barfo
Sure. But apparently nobody understood that at the time the interstates were first being built. Yes, that was a terrible mistake. Although not exactly unique to Portland. Politically speaking, you should maybe consider who supports planning and who supports uncontrolled growth. barfo
The MAX is at capacity. I ride it all the time and the train is packed. No amount of mass transit will solve this situation. The city can't accommodate all the people moving here, and the gentrification, so people are moving further and further out. We are finally seeing the sprawl that has been curtailed for decades. There's simply no way to prevent it. People can't afford to live in Portland anymore, but that's where the jobs are. So we see people commuting in from as far as Salem, or Forest Grove, or Vancouver, or Gresham. They're commuting from where they can afford to buy/rent. Beaverton and Hillsboro keep trying to add lanes to 26, but that's just putting glitter on a turd. The issue is the tunnel where it bottlenecks into one lane going each direction. They need to doze that entire mountain and expand the tunnel. We had a chance to address these growing concerns decades ago, and we just ignored the problem. We let people from back east sell us on the MAX and buses. We simply aren't built for this kind of population. And no amount of 20 minute neighborhoods, bike lanes, or public transportation is going to solve this. The traffic is just going to keep getting worse and worse because people keep moving here.
WTF are you talking about? The Vista Ridge tunnel is 3 lanes in each direction. The bottleneck on the eastbound side are the exit ramps outside of the tunnel.
That's not what I'm saying. One lane goes to I-405 north. One lane goes to downtown. One lane goes to I-405 south. It's a HORRIBLE setup, and 26 is a parking lot most of the day because of it.
And then the ramps onto the Ross Island bridge, holy fuck that just sucks. Waze did show me a way onto it using suicide bridge and cutting thru some neighborhoods that is pretty slick.
Or the one lane from Front onto the Hawthorne. The whole fucking city is still set up for a small population. It gridlocks starting at like 3:30/4:00 pm.
Ah, sorry for the misreading. Agreed it's a problem, but there is a simpler solution than blasting another 3 lanes of tunnel. Force people to choose a lane much earlier. If you separated the lanes up near Sylvan instead of right at the exits, you wouldn't have the jams due to assholes trying to cut in at the last minute. You could first split the lanes 2+2, then split one of the two sections again a mile later. barfo
Eh, they'll still do it. I usually get off at the downtown exit.... where nobody else seems to get off, and people still cut over across the solid white line. I don't think making people choose earlier will make any difference. It's just too many people trying to use one lane.
That might work... hard to say. I still think it should be at least two lanes each for the 405 exits.
I love how the big attraction of the city (moda center) is right where it goes to two lanes lol bright city planners
You really think taxing will solver the problem? How about we spend the existing tax money allotted for road improvement and use that money to improve our roads? The suggestion to tax us even more and still not improve anything when we already pay taxes that are supposed to provide funding to the DOT, is crazy.
If a tax is the answer, impose a hefty fee on new residents via vehicle registrations and drivers licenses. Make newbies pay for the stresses they cause by moving here......
I'd be totally in favor of that but it won't solve the congestion problem, unless the fee is so high that it keeps people from moving here. And if it was, they'd just drive w/o license/registration. barfo
