Thursday, December 23, 2004
Portland is is ranked among the worst for traffic congestion
Stalled freight costs big bucks
Susie Lahsene, manager of land use and transportation policy for the Port of Portland, says road delays have a real cost: One minute spent idling in traffic costs $1 in wasted fuel and lost productivity. And that's conservative.” She says the 10,000 trucks on the Interstate 5 trade corridor at any given time experience delays that constitute a loss of $26 million worth of productivity annually, and more than a half-billion dollars over 20 years, a figure that doesn’t count the additional trucks needed to compensate for lost time.
We are told by Metro and transportation planners we need more choices such as light rail and commuter rail but these choices do not reduce congestion on our roads or in our neighborhoods.
John Charles of the Cascade Policy Institute says Oregon's road situation is the result of neglect, pure and simple. “You look at Highway 26 and Highway 217 — it’s scandalous that those facilities were not improved a decade ago,” he says.
Susie Lahsene, manager of land use and transportation policy for the Port of Portland, says road delays have a real cost: One minute spent idling in traffic costs $1 in wasted fuel and lost productivity. And that's conservative.” She says the 10,000 trucks on the Interstate 5 trade corridor at any given time experience delays that constitute a loss of $26 million worth of productivity annually, and more than a half-billion dollars over 20 years, a figure that doesn’t count the additional trucks needed to compensate for lost time.
We are told by Metro and transportation planners we need more choices such as light rail and commuter rail but these choices do not reduce congestion on our roads or in our neighborhoods.
John Charles of the Cascade Policy Institute says Oregon's road situation is the result of neglect, pure and simple. “You look at Highway 26 and Highway 217 — it’s scandalous that those facilities were not improved a decade ago,” he says.
Comments:
It was a good article but there's no hope for Portland when it comes to further highway construction. If you don't believe me, go to Mapquest.com and see for yourself how overdeveloped Portland has become. Homes have sprawled everywhere thanks to years of uncontrolled subdivision developement. Smart Growth would have limited the number of new developments to the point where you could build a new highway. No more.
There is no more room to build another highway in Portland so the cars and trucks are stuck. I hate to tell you this but I don't see how intermodal can save the city of Portland because there are so few tracks laid compared to the miles and miles of highways. Intermodal maybe the only way to get the trucks off the highways but who's going to spend more money (billions) for the necessary infrastructure? One thing is certain, there will never be another highway 26 built in Portland so the current ones will be the last one we will ever see in Portland for the next 10 billion years! If you don't believe me, look at Mapquest and tell me where you can built another highway 26 without destroying thousands of new homes? It will never happen.
Looks like your only hope is to build more commuter and lightrail because the days of driving to work on time are about to come to any abrupt end and it couldn't have come sooner.
There is no more room to build another highway in Portland so the cars and trucks are stuck. I hate to tell you this but I don't see how intermodal can save the city of Portland because there are so few tracks laid compared to the miles and miles of highways. Intermodal maybe the only way to get the trucks off the highways but who's going to spend more money (billions) for the necessary infrastructure? One thing is certain, there will never be another highway 26 built in Portland so the current ones will be the last one we will ever see in Portland for the next 10 billion years! If you don't believe me, look at Mapquest and tell me where you can built another highway 26 without destroying thousands of new homes? It will never happen.
Looks like your only hope is to build more commuter and lightrail because the days of driving to work on time are about to come to any abrupt end and it couldn't have come sooner.
Portland planners have shown us, you can build your way into congestion. Just add light rail and other transit choices that get little use.
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