Joseph Rose, the Oregonian reporter who proved that streetcars are slower than walking, has left the paper’s transportation beat. So it took another Oregonian reporter, Andrew Theen, to make the brilliant discover that Portland highways really are at or above capacity.
Of course, that shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who lives in the Portland area. According to the Texas Transportation Institute’s latest urban mobility report, Portland has more congestion today (measured by hours of delay per auto commuter) than Los Angeles did 30 years ago, when LA was considered to be about the worst congested city in the world.
It’s no wonder, since Portland and Oregon have added virtually no new road capacity since the 1970s, when the region’s population was about half what it is today. Although officials complained to Theen that new capacity was too expensive, the region hasn’t hesitated to spend roughly $5 billion on light-rail lines that carry an insignificant share of the region’s traffic.
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Some Portland-area suburbs are using impact fees (known locally as system development charges) on every new home to help pay for transportation. This, however, is a bad practice as it not only makes the cost of new homes more expensive, it raises the cost of existing homes, earning windfall profits for existing homeowners but reducing housing affordability for everyone else.
Speaking of housing, Portlanders are now joining Seattleites in protesting the demolition of single-family homes to be replaced with higher-priced condos. But few of the protesters seem to understand that the real cause of their problems is the urban-growth boundaries that create artificial shortages of land for development, thus forcing builders to redevelop existing neighborhoods to higher densities.
Just to set the record straight. I205 was opened in the early to mid 80’s, and another lane was added soon after. I84 was widened, lanes added, and entrances eliminated – which turned out to work better – in the mid 1980’s with the installation of Light Rail along side. So capacity was added. When we voted for light rail – only once – it was with the understanding that the traffic corridors added would mean adding motor vehicle capacity at the same time. Unfortunately that hasn’t been the case with the installation if Interstate Light Rail – which reduced capacity along Interstate Avenue, and for the most part diverted traffic to I5 increasing congestion on the norther part of I5.
“So it took another Oregonian reporter, Andrew Theen, to make the brilliant discover that Portland highways really are at or above capacity.”
The data should not be a state secret The real-time HCM Level of Service (LOS) data should be presented on a web-site for all to see. The format should be a map, where each junction is represented by a coloured circle & a letter within it, eg:
LOS A – ‘A’ on dark green background
LOS B – ‘B’ on light green background
LOS C – ‘C’ on yellow background
LOS D – ‘D’ on light orange background
LOS E – ‘E’ on dark orange background
LOS F – ‘F’ on red background
The traffic flows are recorded, put through an algorithm, and out come the LOS.
“Some Portland-area suburbs are using impact fees (known locally as system development charges) on every new home to help pay for transportation. ”
The unfairness is that the early birds can put their cars on the road for free, whereas latecomers have to pay for the damage that they do.
Of course cars do little damage to roads because they are so light.
The most damaging vehicles on city streets are buses, followed by trucks.
Unlike buses cars and trucks pay their own way through user fees/taxes.
Imagine how much more vibrant Portland would be now if the $5 Billion dollars wasted on 18th century light rail and street cars had been spent on our real transportation system, our surface streets, freeways and bus system. Our transportation system would be state of the art. The Mt. Hood freeway would exist and all major roads would be 6 lanes with a turn lane and bike lanes. Portland’s embarrassing Rose Garden I-5 bottle neck would have been fixed years ago. Emergence vehicles could get to you super fast if needed. Commercial and domestic traffic would flow smoothly, quickly and safely with little squeezed onto neighborhood streets that were all paved, even during rush hour. Getting to work, home and errands would be a breeze.
Instead our car loathing, left wing wacko leaders have our real transportation system decay ridden, out dated and under capacity and that hurts all of us no matter how you choose to get to where you need too be.
Clearly, government has had enough money to do the right thing to our transportation system all along.
The Antiplanner wrote:
It’s no wonder, since Portland and Oregon have added virtually no new road capacity since the 1970s, when the region’s population was about half what it is today. Although officials complained to Theen that new capacity was too expensive, the region hasn’t hesitated to spend roughly $5 billion on light-rail lines that carry an insignificant share of the region’s traffic.
How’s about hardening bridges and other structures around the Portland Metro “service area” against the (apparently inevitable) Cascadia Subduction Zone magnitude 9.0 earthquake (described in some detail in a pretty chilling New Yorker article here)?
Would that by chance make a lot more sense than building or expanding choo-choo train projects in various configurations?
How’s about hardening bridges and other structures around the Portland Metro “service area” against the (apparently inevitable) Cascadia Subduction Zone magnitude 9.0 earthquake (described in some detail in a pretty chilling New Yorker article here)?
Speaking of that, CP, for the first time ever, when I was in Portland yesterday, I saw a project underway to seismically reinforce an overpass (Barbur Blvd over I-5) by adding column jackets to the support pillars. Have seen many of these retrofits in Seattle (especially the extensive I-5 overpasses & bridges around downtown Seattle), but probably not nearly enough are completed.
The new study says we are “are at or above capacity.” which only supports the old study that projected if we did no build the West Side Bypass, our roads would be gridlocked, on the bridges on the Columbia River.
Flashback in the Oregonian.
—cut from story—
At the present rate of growth, transportation officials expect the two existing
Columbia River highway bridges to be clogged before the year 2010. Traffic
volumes are growing faster than previously anticipated, IRC figures show.
—–cut from below story—————-
STUDY OF THIRD COLUMBIA BRIDGE CLEARS ANOTHER HURDLE
Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
November 4, 1988
Author: BILL STEWART – of the Oregonian Staff
Summary: Board of planning agency gives unanimous approval to
study for Olympia panel
A proposed highway study billed in the past as a “third bridge study”
cleared another hurdle Thursday but was renamed a “river crossing
accessibility study.’
-cut from story—–