Month: December 2022
-
Flat Earth Sophistry
The science of induced travel is well proven, but state DOTs are in utter denial Widening freeways not only fails to reduce congestion, it inevitably results in more vehicle travel and more pollution The Oregon Department of Transportation has published a technical manual banning the consideration of induced travel in Oregon highway projects. The Oregon…
-
Traffic is declining at the Rose Quarter: ODOT growth projections are fiction
ODOT’s own traffic data shows that daily traffic (ADT) has been declining for 25 years, by -0.55 percent per year The ODOT modeling inexplicably predicts that traffic will suddenly start growing through 2045, growing by 0.68 percent per year ODOT’s modeling falsely claims that traffic will be the same regardless of whether the I-5 freeway…
-
The truth about Oregon DOT’s Rose Quarter MegaFreeway
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) desperately wants to build a mega-freeway through NE Portland, and is planning to double the freeway from 4 lanes to 8 or 10 lanes. But it has hidden its true objective, by claiming only to add two “auxiliary” lanes to the existing 4 lane freeway, and arguing (falsely) that…
-
The IBR project: Too much money for too many interchanges
The real expense of the $5 billion I-5 bridge replacement project isn’t actually building a new bridge over the Columbia River: It’s widening miles of freeway and rebuilding every intersection north and south of the river. A decade ago, an independent panel of experts convened by OR and WA governor’s strongly recommended to ODOR and WSDOT…
-
The Week Observed, December 16, 2022
Editor’s Note: Public Comment on the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway Project Between now and January 4, 2023, the public will be asked to weigh in with its comments on the proposed I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway Widening project. If you’re interested, you can make your voice heard. For more information on how to comment, we urge…
-
Blame inflation now: Lying about the latest IBR Cost Overrun
The price of the I-5 “bridge replacement” project just increased by more than 50 percent, from $4.8 billion to $7.5 billion ODOT and WSDOT are blaming “higher inflation” for IBR cost overruns As we’ve noted, the Oregon Department of Transportation has a long string of 100 percent cost-overruns on its major projects. Almost every large…
-
Pricing works better than spending $1.45 billion to fix I-5 traffic
A recently disclosed ODOT memo shows that congestion pricing would do a better job of fixing I-5 congestion than spending $1.45 billion widening the I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter Congestion pricing would would be more than a billion dollars cheaper, would make traffic on I-5 move faster, and would produce less pollution than widening…
-
ODOT doesn’t care about covers, again
ODOT’s Supplemental Environmental Analysis shows it has no plans for doing anything on its vaunted freeway covers It left the description of cover’s post-construction use as “XXX facilities” in the final, official Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement The report makes it clear that “restorative justice” is still just a vapid slogan at the Oregon Department of…
-
ODOT’s I-5 Rose Quarter “Improvement”: A million more miles of local traffic
ODOT’s proposed relocation of the I-5 Southbound off-ramp at the Rose Quarter will add 1.3 million miles of vehicle travel to local streets each year. Moving the I-5 on ramp a thousand feet further south creates longer journeys for the 12,000 cars exiting the freeway at this ramp each day. The new ramp location requires…
-
The Week Observed, December 2, 2022
Editor’s Note: Public Comment on the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway Project In the next month, the public will be asked to weigh in with its comments on the proposed I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway Widening project. If you’re interested, you can make your voice heard. For more information on how to comment, we urge you to…
-
Why won’t ODOT tell us how wide their freeway is?
After more than three years of public debate, ODOT still won’t tell anyone how wide a freeway they’re planning to build at the Rose Quarter ODOT’s plans appear to provide for a 160-foot wide roadway, wide enough to accommodate a ten lane freeway, not just two additional “auxiliary” lanes ODOT is trying to avoid NEPA,…