Rose Quarter: So expensive because it’s too damn wide The cost of the $1.9 billion Rose Quarter freeway is driven by its excessive width ODOT is proposing to more than double the width of the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway through the Albina neighborhood ODOT could easily str... → By Joe Cortright 12.7.2023
Rose Quarter: Death throes of a bloated boondoggle For years, we've been following the tortured Oregon Department of Transportation Plans to widen a 1.5 mile stretch of I-5 near downtown Portland. The past few months show this project is in serious trouble. Here's a su... → By Joe Cortright 31.8.2023
Extend and Pretend: ODOT’s Zombie Rose Quarter project The Oregon Department of Transportation is playing "Extend and Pretend" with the $1.9 billion I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening project The cost of the 1.5 mile freeway widening has quadrupled from $450 million in 2017 ... → By Joe Cortright 9.7.2023
ODOT’s I-205 Bridge: 1/10th of 1 Percent for Black Contractors The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is falling short of its own goals of contracting with disadvantaged business enterprises One-tenth of one percent of I-205 contracts went to Black construction firms ODO... → By Joe Cortright 20.7.2023
Who sold out the HAAB? The members of ODOT's "Historic Albina Advisory Board" (HAAB) are hopping mad. As related by Jonathan Maus at Bike Portland, they feel board betrayed by a decision to postpone construction of the $1.6 billion I-5 Rose Qu... → By Joe Cortright 11.7.2023
Pens down! The price of ODOT's trouble plagued Rose Quarter project has quadrupled to $1.9 billion, and the agency has no way to pay for it, because it spent the money the Legislature provided in 2017 on another project. And agency... → By Joe Cortright 10.7.2023
CEVP: Non-existent cost controls for the $7.5 billion IBR project Oregon DOT has a history of enormous cost overruns, and just told the Oregon and Washington Legislatures that the cost of the I-5 Bridge Replacement Program (IBR) had ballooned 54 percent, to as much as $7.5 billion. To... → By Joe Cortright 7.2.2023
What the City of Portland said about the Rose Quarter City of Portland raises big questions about the I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening project (translated). Last month was the deadline for comments on the supplemental environmental analysis for the proposed $1.45 billio... → By Joe Cortright 2.2.2023
It looks like the Interstate Bridge Replacement could cost $9 billion Just 13 months after raising the price of the Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) project by more than 50 percent, the state DOTs ay it will cost even more We estimate project costs are likely to increase 20 percent or ... → By Joe Cortright 4.1.2024
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 Oreg... → By Joe Cortright 14.12.2022
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 acco... → By Joe Cortright 1.12.2022
Driving between Vancouver and Wilsonville at 5PM? ODOT plans to charge you $15 Under ODOT's toll plans, A driving from Wilsonville to Vancouver will cost you as much as $15, each-way, at the peak hour. Drive from Vancouver to a job in Wilsonville? Get ready to shell out as much as $30 per day. ... → By Joe Cortright 11.2.2023
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 ... → By Joe Cortright 7.12.2022
ODOT: Our I-5 Rose Quarter safety project will increase crashes A newly revealed ODOT report shows the redesign of the I-5 Rose Quarter project will: creates a dangerous hairpin turn on the I-5 Southbound off-ramp increase crashes 13 percent violate the agency's own highw... → By Joe Cortright 19.11.2022
The Rose Quarter’s Big U-Turn: Deadman’s Curve? The redesign of the I-5 Rose Quarter project creates a hazardous new hairpin off-ramp from a Interstate 5 Is ODOT's supposed "safety" project really creating a new "Deadman's Curve" at the Moda Center? Bike riders wi... → By Joe Cortright 15.11.2022
ODOT reneges on Rose Quarter cover promises The soon-to-be released Rose Quarter I-5 Revised Environmental Assessment shows that ODOT is already reneging on its sales pitch of using a highway widening to heal Portland's Albina Neighborhood. It trumpeted "highway ... → By Joe Cortright 14.11.2022
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 Depar... → By Joe Cortright 30.12.2022
ODOT’s safety lie is back, bigger than ever Oregon DOT is using phony claims about safety to sell a $1.45 billion freeway widening project People are regularly being killed on ODOT roadways and the agency claims that it lacks the resources to fix these problems ... → By Joe Cortright 18.10.2022
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... → By Joe Cortright 9.12.2022
Portland: Don’t move or close schools to widen freeways Adah Crandall is a sophomore at Grant High School. She is the co-lead of Portland Youth Climate Strike and an organizer with Sunrise PDX's Youth Vs ODOT campaign, a biweekly series of rallies fighting for the decarboniza... → By Adah Crandall 27.1.2022
ODOT’s forecasting double standard Oregon's highway agency rigs its projections to maximize revenue and downplay its culpability for climate challenge ODOT has two different standards for forecasting: When it forecasts revenue, it says it will ignore a... → By Joe Cortright 17.2.2022
Metro’s failing climate strategy Metro's Climate Smart Strategy, adopted in 2014, has been an abject failure Portland area transportation greenhouse gasses are up 22 percent since the plan was adopted: instead of falling by 1 million tons per year, emi... → By Joe Cortright 30.12.2021
The opposite of planning: Why Metro should stop I-5 Bridge con Portland's Metro regional government would be committing planning malpractice and enabling lasting fiscal and environmental damage if it goes along with state highway department freeway widening plans The proposed $5 ... → By Joe Cortright 2.11.2021
Freeway-widening grifters: Woke-washing, fraud and incompetence The Oregon Department of Transportation's glossy mailer to sell its $1.25 billion I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening project is a cynical, error-ridden marketing ploy. ODOT doesn't show or tell about its wider freeway an... → By Joe Cortright 20.9.2021
Selling Oregon into highway bondage Borrowing billions to widen roads endangers the climate and finances It's doubly wrong to burden future generations with the environmental costs of wider roads, and then also send them the bill Bond financing of new... → By Joe Cortright 22.7.2021
Oregon DOT’s Real Climate Plan: Keep on polluting The Oregon DOT's "Climate Action Plan" claims that the agency wants to decrease greenhouse gases, but its financial plans show otherwise The agency's revenue projections show it is planning for gasoline consumption not... → By Joe Cortright 6.12.2021
Welcome to Portland Secretary Pete! Now about the Rose Quarter Freeway Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is visiting Oregon to learn more about local transportation issues. The local advocacy group No More Freeways has sent him an open letter to provide some background for his visit. ... → By Joe Cortright 14.7.2021
The Bum’s Rush The $800 million project transitions from "nothing has been decided" to "nothing can be changed" There's a kind of calculated phase-shift in the way transportation department's talk about major projects. For a long, l... → By Joe Cortright 21.6.2021
More proof of ODOT’s Rose Quarter Freeway coverup Newly revealed documents show its roadway is vastly wider than needed for traffic, and also makes "buildable" freeway covers prohibitively expensive If you really want just two additional lanes, you can do so much more ... → By Joe Cortright 16.6.2021
Just say no: How to deal with highway widening zealots The Oregon and Washington highway departments are at it again, pushing a 10- or 12-lane, five mile long freeway widening project that's likely to cost at least $5 billion. They're responding to objections with a combina... → By David Bragdon 12.5.2022
Failing to Learn from Failed CRC Metro Council voted on July 14th to wave on the proposed "Interstate Bridge Replacement" project which is really a bloated, 5 mile long, 12-lane wide freeway that will cost $5 billion and likely much more. It's a scene-for... → By David Bragdon 14.7.2022
Don’t Repeat the Hard Earned Lessons of the Failed CRC ODOT has repeatedly lied and misled Portland's leaders about major highway projects No one should take at face value its assurances or representations A warning from one of Portland's past leaders about the deceptive... → By David Bragdon 12.5.2021
The real “I-5” project: $5 billion, 5 miles, $5 tolls The intentionally misleading re-brand of the failed Columbia River Crossing conceals the key fact that it is a 12-lane wide, 5 mile long freeway that just happens to cross a river, not a "bridge replacement." It's vastl... → By Joe Cortright 3.5.2021
Getting real about restorative justice in Albina Drawings don't constitute restorative justice ODOT shows fancy drawings about what might be built, but isn't talking about actually paying to build anything Just building the housing shown in its diagrams would requi... → By Joe Cortright 26.4.2021
ODOT’s peer review panel admits it didn’t validate Rose Quarter travel forecasts ODOT has claimed a "peer review panel" vindicated its air pollution analysis Now the panel says they didn't look into the accuracy of ODOT's travel forecast Travel forecasts are critical, because they determine air a... → By Joe Cortright 14.4.2021
The freight fable: Moving trucks is not longer the key to economic prosperity It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it. Upton Sinclair It's even harder to get a trucking industry lobbyist or a highway department booster to un... → By Joe Cortright 22.4.2021
Driving stakes, selling bonds: ODOT’s freeway boondoggle plan The Oregon Department of Transportation is launching a series of boondoggle freeways, with no idea of their ultimate cost, and issuing bonds that will obligate the public to pay for expensive and un-needed highways. Fut... → By Joe Cortright 26.1.2023
Wholly Moses: Pave now, pay later Oregon legislation goes whole hog on highways HB 3065 would launch a whole new round of freeway boondoggles, and plunge the state into debt to pay for them The classic Robert Moses scam: Drive stakes, sell bonds ... → By Joe Cortright 6.4.2021
How ODOT destroyed Albina, part 3: The Fremont Bridge ramps ODOT's Fremont Bridge wiped out multiple blocks of the Albina neighborhood A freeway you've never heard of leveled dozens of blocks in North and Northeast Portland The stub of a proposed "Prescott Freeway" still scar... → By Joe Cortright 7.4.2021
An open letter to the Oregon Transportation Commission For years, the Oregon Department of Transportation has concealed its plans to build a ten lane freeway through Portland's Rose Quarter We're calling on the state to do a full environmental impact statement that assesses... → By Joe Cortright 18.3.2021
Taking Tubman: ODOT’s plan to build a freeway on school grounds ODOT's proposed I-5 Rose Quarter project would turn a school yard into a freeway The widened I-5 freeway will make already unhealthy air even worse Pollution from high volume roads has been shown to lower student ac... → By Joe Cortright 13.4.2021
Revealed: ODOT’s Secret Plans for a 10-Lane Rose Quarter Freeway For years, ODOT has been planning to build a 10 lane freeway at the Rose Quarter, not the 6 lanes it has advertised. Three previously undisclosed files show ODOT is planning for a 160 foot wide roadway at Broadway-Weidl... → By Joe Cortright 24.2.2021
How ODOT destroyed Albina: The I-5 Meat Axe Interstate 5 "Meat Axe" slashed through the Albina Neighborhood in 1962 This was the second of three acts by ODOT that destroyed housing and isolated Albina Building the I-5 freeway led to the demolition of housing ... → By Joe Cortright 30.3.2021
How ODOT destroyed Albina: The untold story I-5 wasn't the first highway that carved up Portland's historically black Albina Neighborhood. Seventy years ago, ODOT spent the equivalent of more than $80 million in today's dollars to cut the Albina neighborhood off ... → By Joe Cortright 22.3.2021
How freeways kill cities Freeways slash population in cities, and prompt growth in suburbs Within city centers, the closer your neighborhood was to the freeway, the more its population declined. In suburbs, the closer your neighborhood was t... → By Joe Cortright 15.2.2021
Albina Then and Now Albina then and now Basically, Albina was wiped out by Interstate Ave 99E (ODOT) 1951 Memorial Coliseum (City) 1958 I-5 1962 Emmanuel Hospital (PDC) 1970s Blanchard Center (PPS) 1980 Convention Center 1990... → By Joe Cortright 1.2.2021
Calculating induced demand at the Rose Quarter Widening I-5 at the Rose Quarter in Portland will produce an addition 17.4 to 34.8 million miles of vehicle travel and 7.8 to 15.5 thousand tons of greenhouse gases per year. These estimates come from a customized cal... → By Joe Cortright 1.2.2021
Congestion Pricing: ODOT is disobeying an order from Governor Brown More than a year ago, Oregon Governor Kate Brown directed ODOT to "include a full review of congestion pricing" before deciding whether or not to do a full environmental impact statement for the proposed I-5 Rose Quarter... → By Joe Cortright 8.2.2021
The real $3.4 billion hole in the I-5 bridge project The Oregon and Washington transportation departments understated the funding gap for a revived I-5 Columbia River Bridge by more than $1 billion Correcting for an arithmetic error increases the gap between identified re... → By Joe Cortright 30.11.2020
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 ... → By Joe Cortright 19.12.2022
The toxic flood of cars, not just the freeway, crushed Albina Restorative Justice & A Viable Neighborhood What destroyed the Albina community? What will it take to restore it? It wasn't just the freeway, it was the onslaught of cars, that transformed Albina into a bleak a... → By Joe Cortright 16.9.2020
Vancouver Columbian: Suburban drivers matter Who are the real beneficiaries of the $800 million I-5 Rose Quarter project? Vancouver, Washington commuters, who won't pay a dime for its construction. Wider freeways just double down on the damage done to city neigh... → By Joe Cortright 18.9.2020
What about reparations for people? ODOT proudly spends road funds on mitigating the impact of its highways: if you're an invertebrate. The highway department mitigates noise pollution, rebuilds jails, and even compensates neighborhoods But if we rep... → By Joe Cortright 20.5.2021
Dominos falling on Rose Quarter freeway widening Last week, over the space of about 24 hours, the prospects for Portland's proposed the Rose Quarter freeway widening dimmed almost to extinction. Leaders of Portland's African-American community have concluded that the ... → By Joe Cortright 14.7.2020
Whitewashing the freeway widening A so-called "peer review" panel was kept in the dark about critiques of the highway department's flawed projections This is a thinly veiled attempt These are the products of a hand-picked, spoon-fed group, asked by ODOT... → By Joe Cortright 4.6.2020
Widening I-5 at the Rose Quarter will increase greenhouse gases Adding more freeway capacity at the Rose Quarter will thousands of tons to the region's greenhouse gas emissions If you say you believe in science, and you take climate change seriously, you can't support spending $800... → By Joe Cortright 26.1.2021
Abernethy Bridge Cost Triples to $750 million Oregon DOT's I-205 Abernethy Bridge rebuild, advertised as costing $248 million, will really cost $750 million The project's estimated cost has tripled in just over five years, and still has further cost overrun risk ... → By Joe Cortright 5.5.2024
Yet another exploding whale: ODOT’s freeway widening cost doubles It now looks like Oregon DOT's I-205 Abernethy Bridge rebuild, advertised as costing $248 million, will really cost $500 million The project's estimated cost has doubled in just four years, and still has further cost ov... → By Joe Cortright 18.5.2022
Another exploding whale: ODOT’s freeway widening cost quadruples It now looks like Oregon DOT's I-5 Rose Quarter $450 million freeway widening project will cost more than $1.9 billion The project's estimated cost has nearly quadrupled in just six years, and still has further cost ov... → By Joe Cortright 3.7.2023
Another exploding whale: ODOT’s freeway widening cost triples It now looks like Oregon DOT's I-5 Rose Quarter $450 million freeway widening project will cost more than $1.25 billion The project's estimated cost has nearly tripled in just four years, and still has further cost over... → By Joe Cortright 16.9.2021
ODOT: Exploding whales and cost overruns It now looks like Oregon DOT's $450 million freeway widening project will cost over a billion dollars Whales aren't the only than blow up on ODOT One of the most viewed clips on YouTube depict the handiwork of Oregon... → By Joe Cortright 9.3.2020
Lying about safety to sell freeway widening ODOT's lies about safety at the Rose Quarter are so blatant they can be seen 400 miles away. Freeway widening isn't about deaths or injuries, but "motorist inconvenience" according to this safety expert, making this $80... → By Joe Cortright 10.2.2020
Memo to the Oregon Transportation Commission: Don’t Dodge Climate change? Not our job. We're just following orders. The Oregon Transportation Commission is on the firing line for its plans to build a $800 million I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening project in Northeast Portlan... → By Joe Cortright 6.2.2020
ODOT’s Climate Lie: An idle theory of greenhouse gas emissions ODOT Director Kris Strickler makes a phony claim that we can fight climate change by reducing traffic idling in congestion Asked about how his agency will respond to the challenge of climate change, newly nominated Oreg... → By Joe Cortright 8.12.2019
No deposit, no return: Another lie to sell the Columbia River Crossing State DOT's are using a false claim about financial liability to revive the Columbia River Crossing folly There's no requirement to repay $140 million in federal funds, if states choose the "No-Build" option The Oreg... → By Joe Cortright 18.11.2019
Portland’s freeway fight: Round 1 goes to the scrappy upstarts Community opposition forces Oregon Department of Transportation to do a full Environmental Impact Statement on its half-billion dollar Rose Quarter freeway widening project. For the past two years, we've been deeply eng... → By Joe Cortright 29.8.2019
It’s official: I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening is a boondoggle Frontier Group and USPIRG's annual report on highway boondoggles calls out the Oregon DOT's wasteful, ineffective I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening project as a national level boondoggle. Portland is famous for making t... → By Joe Cortright 18.6.2019
The case against the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening Portland is weighing whether to spend as much as $1.45 billion dollars widening a mile-long stretch of the I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter near downtown. We've dug deeply into this idea at City Observatory, and we've publi... → By Joe Cortright 2.1.2023
25 reasons not to widen Portland freeways Portland is weighing whether to spend half a billion dollars widening a mile-long stretch of the I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter near downtown. We've dug deeply into this idea at City Observatory, and we've published 25 co... → By Joe Cortright 3.4.2019
More Orwell from the Oregon Department of Transportation We have always been at war with Eastasia. Concealing and lying about key facts regarding the proposed Rose Quarter Freeway widening process is a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act and a betrayal of publi... → By Joe Cortright 2.4.2019
ODOT consultant: Pricing is a better fix for the Rose Quarter Oregon DOT's own consultants say congestion pricing would be a better way to fix congestion at the I-5 Rose Quarter than spending $800 million. Pricing would improve traffic flow and add capacity equal to another full l... → By Joe Cortright 27.4.2021
National transportation experts: Portland, you’re doing it wrong Long regarded as a national leader in transportation policy, Portland is being called out by some of the best and brightest for a wrong-headed decision to spend half a billion dollars widening freeways. The damage done is ... → By Joe Cortright 25.3.2019
Safety last: What we’ve learned from “improving” the I-5 freeway. Expanding freeway capacity on I-5 hasn’t reduced crashes in Woodburn, but did triple in cost Today, we’re pleased to offer a guest commentary from Naomi Fast. Naomi currently lives in Beaverton, Oregon. Previously, ... → By Joe Cortright 21.3.2019
Distorted images: Freeway widening is bad for pedestrians The proposed I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening project creates a bike- and pedestrian-hostile environment The Oregon Department of Transportation has crafted distorted images that exaggerate pedestrian use by a factor o... → By Joe Cortright 14.3.2019
The Rose Quarter: ODOT’s Phony safety claims There's no evidence that widening the I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter will reduce crashes. ODOT used a model that doesn't work for freeways with ramp-meters When ODOT widened I-5 lanes and shoulders near Victory Boul... → By Joe Cortright 11.3.2019
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... → By Joe Cortright 22.12.2022
The black box: Hiding the facts about freeway widening State DOT officials have crafted an Supplemental Environmental Assessment that conceals more than it reveals The Rose Quarter traffic report contains no data on "average daily traffic" the most common measure of vehicle... → By Joe Cortright 28.11.2022
The black box: Hiding the facts about freeway widening `State DOT officials have crafted an Environmental Assessment that conceals more than it reveals In theory, the National Environmental Policy Act is all about disclosing facts. But in practice, that isn't always how it ... → By Joe Cortright 12.3.2019
Why do poor school kids have to clean up rich commuter’s pollution? The fundamental injustice of pollution from urban freeways Item: In the past two years, Portland Public Schools has spent nearly $12.5 million of its scarce funds to clean up the air at Harriet Tubman Middle School. ... → By Joe Cortright 6.3.2019
Wider freeways don’t reduce congestion Portland's $500 million Rose Quarter Freeway Widening Project is being sold as a way to reduce congestion: But it won't work In three recent commentaries at City Observatory, we've explored whether a wider freeway at ... → By Joe Cortright 4.3.2019
Orwellian freeway-widening What pretends to be an environmental assessment is actually a thinly-veiled marketing brochure In theory, an environmental impact statement is supposed to be a disclosure document. The idea behind the National Environme... → By Joe Cortright 5.3.2019
How a freeway destroyed a neighborhood, and may again Portland's Albina neighborhood was devastated by the I-5 freeway; Widening it repeats that mistake Freeways and the traffic they generate are toxic to vibrant urban spaces. The great lesson of the urban freeway building... → By Joe Cortright 18.3.2019
There’s a $3 billion bridge hidden in the Rose Quarter Project EA ODOT hid its plans to build a $3 billion Columbia River Crossing in the Rose Quarter Freeway Widening Environmental Assessment The carefully crafted marketing campaign for the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening project i... → By Joe Cortright 27.3.2019
Why Portland shouldn’t be widening freeways Why Portland's freeway fight is so important to the future of cities everywhere The plan to widen the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway in Portland, at a cost of $500 million, is a tragic error for one city, and an object lesson... → By Joe Cortright 11.3.2019
Widening the I-5 Freeway will add millions of miles of vehicle travel We can calculate how much added freeway lanes will induce additional car travel The takeaway: the I-5 freeway widening project in Portland lead to 10 to 17 million more miles of vehicle travel annually, which will in ... → By Joe Cortright 4.3.2019
Freeway widening for whomst? There's a huge demographic divide between those who use freeways and neighbors who bear their costs When it comes time to evaluate the equity of freeway widening investments, it's important to understand that there are ... → By Joe Cortright 6.3.2019
Backfire: How widening freeways can make traffic congestion worse Widening I-5 in Portland apparently made traffic congestion worse Oregon's Department of Transportation (ODOT) is proposing to spend half a billion dollars to add two lanes to Interstate 5 at the Rose Quarter in Portl... → By Joe Cortright 26.2.2019
Rose Quarter freeway widening won’t reduce congestion Spending half a billion dollars to widen a mile of I-5 will have exactly zero effect on daily congestion. The biggest transportation project moving forward in downtown Portland isn't something related to transit, or cyc... → By Joe Cortright 6.2.2019
No deal: Why a CRC revival is going nowhere Reviving the Columbia River Crossing will never happen: the two sides have incompatible aims There are continued rumblings in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area about reviving the abandoned plan to spend $3 bill... → By Joe Cortright 15.1.2019
How tax evasion fuels traffic congestion in Portland Tax free shopping in Oregon saves the typical Southwest Washington household $1,000 per year Cross border shopping accounts for 10-20 percent of all trips across the I-5 and I-205 bridges Tax avoidance means we're ... → By Joe Cortright 15.3.2019
Oregon DOT admits it lied about I-5 safety Oregon's Department of Transportation concedes it was lying about crashes on I-5 at the Rose Quarter For more than a year, we and others have been calling out the Oregon Department of Transportation for its false claims... → By Joe Cortright 17.3.2020
Safety: Using the big lie to sell wider freeways Oregon's Department of Transportation is lying about safety to sell a half billion dollar freeway project Fear-mongering is the one of the lowest, if unfortunately most effective, means of selling anything. Threaten a... → By Joe Cortright 19.3.2019
Moving the goalposts The key to being on-time and under-budget: Orwellian double-speak Oregon DOT projects are always on-time and under budget--because the agency simply disappears its original schedules and budgets. Delayed, half-fini... → By Joe Cortright 30.4.2024
Housing reparations for Northeast Portland Attention freeway builders! Want to make up for dividing the community and destroying neighborhoods? How about replacing the homes you demolished? One of the carefully crafted talking points in the sales pitch for the $... → By Joe Cortright 16.4.2018
Diverging diamond blues A key design element of the supposedly pedestrian friendly Rose Quarter freeway cover is a pedestrian hostile diverging diamond interchange One of the main selling points of the plan to spend nearly half a billion dolla... → By Joe Cortright 19.12.2017
The great freeway cover-up Concrete covers are just a thinly-veiled gimmick for selling wider freeways As you've read at City Observatory, and elsewhere (CityLab, Portland Mercury, Willamette Week), Portland is in the midst of a great freeway war... → By Joe Cortright 13.12.2017
A wider freeway won’t reduce traffic Widening I-5 actually increased crashes, instead of reducing them, and an even wider freeway won't be less congested if crashes don't decline. We're going to dig deep into Portland's proposed freeway-widening controvers... → By Joe Cortright 11.2.2019
The death of Flint Street A proposed freeway widening project will tear out one of Portland's most used bike routes At City Observatory, were putting a local Portland-area proposed freeway widening project under a microscope, in part because we ... → By Joe Cortright 5.12.2017
Why we’re talking about Portland’s freeway widening proposal Portland is a bellwether for transportation policy; is it going to take a giant step backward? Last month, the Oregon Legislature passed a $5.3 billion transportation funding bill. A central piece of this legislation is... → By Joe Cortright 15.8.2017
What Dallas, Houston, Louisville & Rochester can teach us about widening freeways: Don’t! Portland is thinking about widening freeways; other cities show that doesn't work Once upon a time, Portland held itself out as a national example of how to build cities that didn't revolve (so much) around the private ... → By Joe Cortright 23.8.2017
Dying to widen highways Oregon's DOT seems to be more concerned with making cars go faster than saving lives Yesterday, we took a look at a recent Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) "performance report" on Portland area freeways. One... → By Joe Cortright 9.8.2017
Let’s use a marketing campaign to solve traffic congestion Here's a thought: Let's fight traffic congestion using the same techniques DOT's use to promote safety. Let's have costumed superheroes weigh in against congestion, and spend billions on safety, instead of the other... → By Joe Cortright 6.10.2020
Happy Earth Day, Oregon! Widening Freeways Kills the Planet! Despite legal pledges to reduce greenhouse gases to address climate change, Portland's transportation greenhouse gas emissions are going up, not down. State, regional and city governments have adopted climate goals t... → By Joe Cortright 22.4.2024
Happy Earth Day, Oregon! Let’s Waste Billions Widening Freeways! If you're serious about dealing with climate change, the last thing you should do is spend billions widening freeways. The Oregon Department of Transportation is hell-bent on widening freeways and destroying the planet ... → By Joe Cortright 22.4.2022
Happy Earth Day, Oregon! Let’s Widen Some Freeways! If you're serious about dealing with climate change, the last thing you should do is spend billions widening freeways. April 22 is Earth Day, and to celebrate, Oregon is moving forward with plans to drop more than a bil... → By Joe Cortright 22.4.2018
Reducing congestion: Katy didn’t Here’s a highway success story, as told by the folks who build highways. Several years ago, the Katy Freeway in Houston was a major traffic bottleneck. It was so bad that in 2004 the American Highway Users Alliance (A... → By Joe Cortright 16.12.2015
Climate concerns crush Oregon highway funding bill While headlines focus on the nearly-bankrupt federal Highway Trust Fund, state and local departments of transportation across the country are facing declining revenues, maintenance backlogs, and an insatiable desire for fu... → By Joe Cortright 30.6.2015
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Rose Quarter: So expensive because it’s too damn wide
The cost of the $1.9 billion Rose Quarter freeway is driven by its excessive width ODOT is proposing to more than double the width of the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway through the Albina neighborhood ODOT could easily str... →
Rose Quarter: Death throes of a bloated boondoggle
For years, we've been following the tortured Oregon Department of Transportation Plans to widen a 1.5 mile stretch of I-5 near downtown Portland. The past few months show this project is in serious trouble. Here's a su... →
Extend and Pretend: ODOT’s Zombie Rose Quarter project
The Oregon Department of Transportation is playing "Extend and Pretend" with the $1.9 billion I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening project The cost of the 1.5 mile freeway widening has quadrupled from $450 million in 2017 ... →
ODOT’s I-205 Bridge: 1/10th of 1 Percent for Black Contractors
The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is falling short of its own goals of contracting with disadvantaged business enterprises One-tenth of one percent of I-205 contracts went to Black construction firms ODO... →
Who sold out the HAAB?
The members of ODOT's "Historic Albina Advisory Board" (HAAB) are hopping mad. As related by Jonathan Maus at Bike Portland, they feel board betrayed by a decision to postpone construction of the $1.6 billion I-5 Rose Qu... →
Pens down!
The price of ODOT's trouble plagued Rose Quarter project has quadrupled to $1.9 billion, and the agency has no way to pay for it, because it spent the money the Legislature provided in 2017 on another project. And agency... →
CEVP: Non-existent cost controls for the $7.5 billion IBR project
Oregon DOT has a history of enormous cost overruns, and just told the Oregon and Washington Legislatures that the cost of the I-5 Bridge Replacement Program (IBR) had ballooned 54 percent, to as much as $7.5 billion. To... →
What the City of Portland said about the Rose Quarter
City of Portland raises big questions about the I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening project (translated). Last month was the deadline for comments on the supplemental environmental analysis for the proposed $1.45 billio... →
It looks like the Interstate Bridge Replacement could cost $9 billion
Just 13 months after raising the price of the Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) project by more than 50 percent, the state DOTs ay it will cost even more We estimate project costs are likely to increase 20 percent or ... →
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 Oreg... →
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 acco... →
Driving between Vancouver and Wilsonville at 5PM? ODOT plans to charge you $15
Under ODOT's toll plans, A driving from Wilsonville to Vancouver will cost you as much as $15, each-way, at the peak hour. Drive from Vancouver to a job in Wilsonville? Get ready to shell out as much as $30 per day. ... →
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 ... →
ODOT: Our I-5 Rose Quarter safety project will increase crashes
A newly revealed ODOT report shows the redesign of the I-5 Rose Quarter project will: creates a dangerous hairpin turn on the I-5 Southbound off-ramp increase crashes 13 percent violate the agency's own highw... →
The Rose Quarter’s Big U-Turn: Deadman’s Curve?
The redesign of the I-5 Rose Quarter project creates a hazardous new hairpin off-ramp from a Interstate 5 Is ODOT's supposed "safety" project really creating a new "Deadman's Curve" at the Moda Center? Bike riders wi... →
ODOT reneges on Rose Quarter cover promises
The soon-to-be released Rose Quarter I-5 Revised Environmental Assessment shows that ODOT is already reneging on its sales pitch of using a highway widening to heal Portland's Albina Neighborhood. It trumpeted "highway ... →
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 Depar... →
ODOT’s safety lie is back, bigger than ever
Oregon DOT is using phony claims about safety to sell a $1.45 billion freeway widening project People are regularly being killed on ODOT roadways and the agency claims that it lacks the resources to fix these problems ... →
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... →
Portland: Don’t move or close schools to widen freeways
Adah Crandall is a sophomore at Grant High School. She is the co-lead of Portland Youth Climate Strike and an organizer with Sunrise PDX's Youth Vs ODOT campaign, a biweekly series of rallies fighting for the decarboniza... →
ODOT’s forecasting double standard
Oregon's highway agency rigs its projections to maximize revenue and downplay its culpability for climate challenge ODOT has two different standards for forecasting: When it forecasts revenue, it says it will ignore a... →
Metro’s failing climate strategy
Metro's Climate Smart Strategy, adopted in 2014, has been an abject failure Portland area transportation greenhouse gasses are up 22 percent since the plan was adopted: instead of falling by 1 million tons per year, emi... →
The opposite of planning: Why Metro should stop I-5 Bridge con
Portland's Metro regional government would be committing planning malpractice and enabling lasting fiscal and environmental damage if it goes along with state highway department freeway widening plans The proposed $5 ... →
Freeway-widening grifters: Woke-washing, fraud and incompetence
The Oregon Department of Transportation's glossy mailer to sell its $1.25 billion I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening project is a cynical, error-ridden marketing ploy. ODOT doesn't show or tell about its wider freeway an... →
Selling Oregon into highway bondage
Borrowing billions to widen roads endangers the climate and finances It's doubly wrong to burden future generations with the environmental costs of wider roads, and then also send them the bill Bond financing of new... →
Oregon DOT’s Real Climate Plan: Keep on polluting
The Oregon DOT's "Climate Action Plan" claims that the agency wants to decrease greenhouse gases, but its financial plans show otherwise The agency's revenue projections show it is planning for gasoline consumption not... →
Welcome to Portland Secretary Pete! Now about the Rose Quarter Freeway
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is visiting Oregon to learn more about local transportation issues. The local advocacy group No More Freeways has sent him an open letter to provide some background for his visit. ... →
The Bum’s Rush
The $800 million project transitions from "nothing has been decided" to "nothing can be changed" There's a kind of calculated phase-shift in the way transportation department's talk about major projects. For a long, l... →
More proof of ODOT’s Rose Quarter Freeway coverup
Newly revealed documents show its roadway is vastly wider than needed for traffic, and also makes "buildable" freeway covers prohibitively expensive If you really want just two additional lanes, you can do so much more ... →
Just say no: How to deal with highway widening zealots
The Oregon and Washington highway departments are at it again, pushing a 10- or 12-lane, five mile long freeway widening project that's likely to cost at least $5 billion. They're responding to objections with a combina... →
Failing to Learn from Failed CRC
Metro Council voted on July 14th to wave on the proposed "Interstate Bridge Replacement" project which is really a bloated, 5 mile long, 12-lane wide freeway that will cost $5 billion and likely much more. It's a scene-for... →
Don’t Repeat the Hard Earned Lessons of the Failed CRC
ODOT has repeatedly lied and misled Portland's leaders about major highway projects No one should take at face value its assurances or representations A warning from one of Portland's past leaders about the deceptive... →
The real “I-5” project: $5 billion, 5 miles, $5 tolls
The intentionally misleading re-brand of the failed Columbia River Crossing conceals the key fact that it is a 12-lane wide, 5 mile long freeway that just happens to cross a river, not a "bridge replacement." It's vastl... →
Getting real about restorative justice in Albina
Drawings don't constitute restorative justice ODOT shows fancy drawings about what might be built, but isn't talking about actually paying to build anything Just building the housing shown in its diagrams would requi... →
ODOT’s peer review panel admits it didn’t validate Rose Quarter travel forecasts
ODOT has claimed a "peer review panel" vindicated its air pollution analysis Now the panel says they didn't look into the accuracy of ODOT's travel forecast Travel forecasts are critical, because they determine air a... →
The freight fable: Moving trucks is not longer the key to economic prosperity
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it. Upton Sinclair It's even harder to get a trucking industry lobbyist or a highway department booster to un... →
Driving stakes, selling bonds: ODOT’s freeway boondoggle plan
The Oregon Department of Transportation is launching a series of boondoggle freeways, with no idea of their ultimate cost, and issuing bonds that will obligate the public to pay for expensive and un-needed highways. Fut... →
Wholly Moses: Pave now, pay later
Oregon legislation goes whole hog on highways HB 3065 would launch a whole new round of freeway boondoggles, and plunge the state into debt to pay for them The classic Robert Moses scam: Drive stakes, sell bonds ... →
How ODOT destroyed Albina, part 3: The Fremont Bridge ramps
ODOT's Fremont Bridge wiped out multiple blocks of the Albina neighborhood A freeway you've never heard of leveled dozens of blocks in North and Northeast Portland The stub of a proposed "Prescott Freeway" still scar... →
An open letter to the Oregon Transportation Commission
For years, the Oregon Department of Transportation has concealed its plans to build a ten lane freeway through Portland's Rose Quarter We're calling on the state to do a full environmental impact statement that assesses... →
Taking Tubman: ODOT’s plan to build a freeway on school grounds
ODOT's proposed I-5 Rose Quarter project would turn a school yard into a freeway The widened I-5 freeway will make already unhealthy air even worse Pollution from high volume roads has been shown to lower student ac... →
Revealed: ODOT’s Secret Plans for a 10-Lane Rose Quarter Freeway
For years, ODOT has been planning to build a 10 lane freeway at the Rose Quarter, not the 6 lanes it has advertised. Three previously undisclosed files show ODOT is planning for a 160 foot wide roadway at Broadway-Weidl... →
How ODOT destroyed Albina: The I-5 Meat Axe
Interstate 5 "Meat Axe" slashed through the Albina Neighborhood in 1962 This was the second of three acts by ODOT that destroyed housing and isolated Albina Building the I-5 freeway led to the demolition of housing ... →
How ODOT destroyed Albina: The untold story
I-5 wasn't the first highway that carved up Portland's historically black Albina Neighborhood. Seventy years ago, ODOT spent the equivalent of more than $80 million in today's dollars to cut the Albina neighborhood off ... →
How freeways kill cities
Freeways slash population in cities, and prompt growth in suburbs Within city centers, the closer your neighborhood was to the freeway, the more its population declined. In suburbs, the closer your neighborhood was t... →
Albina Then and Now
Albina then and now Basically, Albina was wiped out by Interstate Ave 99E (ODOT) 1951 Memorial Coliseum (City) 1958 I-5 1962 Emmanuel Hospital (PDC) 1970s Blanchard Center (PPS) 1980 Convention Center 1990... →
Calculating induced demand at the Rose Quarter
Widening I-5 at the Rose Quarter in Portland will produce an addition 17.4 to 34.8 million miles of vehicle travel and 7.8 to 15.5 thousand tons of greenhouse gases per year. These estimates come from a customized cal... →
Congestion Pricing: ODOT is disobeying an order from Governor Brown
More than a year ago, Oregon Governor Kate Brown directed ODOT to "include a full review of congestion pricing" before deciding whether or not to do a full environmental impact statement for the proposed I-5 Rose Quarter... →
The real $3.4 billion hole in the I-5 bridge project
The Oregon and Washington transportation departments understated the funding gap for a revived I-5 Columbia River Bridge by more than $1 billion Correcting for an arithmetic error increases the gap between identified re... →
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 ... →
The toxic flood of cars, not just the freeway, crushed Albina
Restorative Justice & A Viable Neighborhood What destroyed the Albina community? What will it take to restore it? It wasn't just the freeway, it was the onslaught of cars, that transformed Albina into a bleak a... →
Vancouver Columbian: Suburban drivers matter
Who are the real beneficiaries of the $800 million I-5 Rose Quarter project? Vancouver, Washington commuters, who won't pay a dime for its construction. Wider freeways just double down on the damage done to city neigh... →
What about reparations for people?
ODOT proudly spends road funds on mitigating the impact of its highways: if you're an invertebrate. The highway department mitigates noise pollution, rebuilds jails, and even compensates neighborhoods But if we rep... →
Dominos falling on Rose Quarter freeway widening
Last week, over the space of about 24 hours, the prospects for Portland's proposed the Rose Quarter freeway widening dimmed almost to extinction. Leaders of Portland's African-American community have concluded that the ... →
Whitewashing the freeway widening
A so-called "peer review" panel was kept in the dark about critiques of the highway department's flawed projections This is a thinly veiled attempt These are the products of a hand-picked, spoon-fed group, asked by ODOT... →
Widening I-5 at the Rose Quarter will increase greenhouse gases
Adding more freeway capacity at the Rose Quarter will thousands of tons to the region's greenhouse gas emissions If you say you believe in science, and you take climate change seriously, you can't support spending $800... →
Abernethy Bridge Cost Triples to $750 million
Oregon DOT's I-205 Abernethy Bridge rebuild, advertised as costing $248 million, will really cost $750 million The project's estimated cost has tripled in just over five years, and still has further cost overrun risk ... →
Yet another exploding whale: ODOT’s freeway widening cost doubles
It now looks like Oregon DOT's I-205 Abernethy Bridge rebuild, advertised as costing $248 million, will really cost $500 million The project's estimated cost has doubled in just four years, and still has further cost ov... →
Another exploding whale: ODOT’s freeway widening cost quadruples
It now looks like Oregon DOT's I-5 Rose Quarter $450 million freeway widening project will cost more than $1.9 billion The project's estimated cost has nearly quadrupled in just six years, and still has further cost ov... →
Another exploding whale: ODOT’s freeway widening cost triples
It now looks like Oregon DOT's I-5 Rose Quarter $450 million freeway widening project will cost more than $1.25 billion The project's estimated cost has nearly tripled in just four years, and still has further cost over... →
ODOT: Exploding whales and cost overruns
It now looks like Oregon DOT's $450 million freeway widening project will cost over a billion dollars Whales aren't the only than blow up on ODOT One of the most viewed clips on YouTube depict the handiwork of Oregon... →
Lying about safety to sell freeway widening
ODOT's lies about safety at the Rose Quarter are so blatant they can be seen 400 miles away. Freeway widening isn't about deaths or injuries, but "motorist inconvenience" according to this safety expert, making this $80... →
Memo to the Oregon Transportation Commission: Don’t Dodge
Climate change? Not our job. We're just following orders. The Oregon Transportation Commission is on the firing line for its plans to build a $800 million I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening project in Northeast Portlan... →
ODOT’s Climate Lie: An idle theory of greenhouse gas emissions
ODOT Director Kris Strickler makes a phony claim that we can fight climate change by reducing traffic idling in congestion Asked about how his agency will respond to the challenge of climate change, newly nominated Oreg... →
No deposit, no return: Another lie to sell the Columbia River Crossing
State DOT's are using a false claim about financial liability to revive the Columbia River Crossing folly There's no requirement to repay $140 million in federal funds, if states choose the "No-Build" option The Oreg... →
Portland’s freeway fight: Round 1 goes to the scrappy upstarts
Community opposition forces Oregon Department of Transportation to do a full Environmental Impact Statement on its half-billion dollar Rose Quarter freeway widening project. For the past two years, we've been deeply eng... →
It’s official: I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening is a boondoggle
Frontier Group and USPIRG's annual report on highway boondoggles calls out the Oregon DOT's wasteful, ineffective I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening project as a national level boondoggle. Portland is famous for making t... →
The case against the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening
Portland is weighing whether to spend as much as $1.45 billion dollars widening a mile-long stretch of the I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter near downtown. We've dug deeply into this idea at City Observatory, and we've publi... →
25 reasons not to widen Portland freeways
Portland is weighing whether to spend half a billion dollars widening a mile-long stretch of the I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter near downtown. We've dug deeply into this idea at City Observatory, and we've published 25 co... →
More Orwell from the Oregon Department of Transportation
We have always been at war with Eastasia. Concealing and lying about key facts regarding the proposed Rose Quarter Freeway widening process is a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act and a betrayal of publi... →
ODOT consultant: Pricing is a better fix for the Rose Quarter
Oregon DOT's own consultants say congestion pricing would be a better way to fix congestion at the I-5 Rose Quarter than spending $800 million. Pricing would improve traffic flow and add capacity equal to another full l... →
National transportation experts: Portland, you’re doing it wrong
Long regarded as a national leader in transportation policy, Portland is being called out by some of the best and brightest for a wrong-headed decision to spend half a billion dollars widening freeways. The damage done is ... →
Safety last: What we’ve learned from “improving” the I-5 freeway.
Expanding freeway capacity on I-5 hasn’t reduced crashes in Woodburn, but did triple in cost Today, we’re pleased to offer a guest commentary from Naomi Fast. Naomi currently lives in Beaverton, Oregon. Previously, ... →
Distorted images: Freeway widening is bad for pedestrians
The proposed I-5 Rose Quarter freeway widening project creates a bike- and pedestrian-hostile environment The Oregon Department of Transportation has crafted distorted images that exaggerate pedestrian use by a factor o... →
The Rose Quarter: ODOT’s Phony safety claims
There's no evidence that widening the I-5 freeway at the Rose Quarter will reduce crashes. ODOT used a model that doesn't work for freeways with ramp-meters When ODOT widened I-5 lanes and shoulders near Victory Boul... →
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... →
The black box: Hiding the facts about freeway widening
State DOT officials have crafted an Supplemental Environmental Assessment that conceals more than it reveals The Rose Quarter traffic report contains no data on "average daily traffic" the most common measure of vehicle... →
The black box: Hiding the facts about freeway widening
`State DOT officials have crafted an Environmental Assessment that conceals more than it reveals In theory, the National Environmental Policy Act is all about disclosing facts. But in practice, that isn't always how it ... →
Why do poor school kids have to clean up rich commuter’s pollution?
The fundamental injustice of pollution from urban freeways Item: In the past two years, Portland Public Schools has spent nearly $12.5 million of its scarce funds to clean up the air at Harriet Tubman Middle School. ... →
Wider freeways don’t reduce congestion
Portland's $500 million Rose Quarter Freeway Widening Project is being sold as a way to reduce congestion: But it won't work In three recent commentaries at City Observatory, we've explored whether a wider freeway at ... →
Orwellian freeway-widening
What pretends to be an environmental assessment is actually a thinly-veiled marketing brochure In theory, an environmental impact statement is supposed to be a disclosure document. The idea behind the National Environme... →
How a freeway destroyed a neighborhood, and may again
Portland's Albina neighborhood was devastated by the I-5 freeway; Widening it repeats that mistake Freeways and the traffic they generate are toxic to vibrant urban spaces. The great lesson of the urban freeway building... →
There’s a $3 billion bridge hidden in the Rose Quarter Project EA
ODOT hid its plans to build a $3 billion Columbia River Crossing in the Rose Quarter Freeway Widening Environmental Assessment The carefully crafted marketing campaign for the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway widening project i... →
Why Portland shouldn’t be widening freeways
Why Portland's freeway fight is so important to the future of cities everywhere The plan to widen the I-5 Rose Quarter Freeway in Portland, at a cost of $500 million, is a tragic error for one city, and an object lesson... →
Widening the I-5 Freeway will add millions of miles of vehicle travel
We can calculate how much added freeway lanes will induce additional car travel The takeaway: the I-5 freeway widening project in Portland lead to 10 to 17 million more miles of vehicle travel annually, which will in ... →
Freeway widening for whomst?
There's a huge demographic divide between those who use freeways and neighbors who bear their costs When it comes time to evaluate the equity of freeway widening investments, it's important to understand that there are ... →
Backfire: How widening freeways can make traffic congestion worse
Widening I-5 in Portland apparently made traffic congestion worse Oregon's Department of Transportation (ODOT) is proposing to spend half a billion dollars to add two lanes to Interstate 5 at the Rose Quarter in Portl... →
Rose Quarter freeway widening won’t reduce congestion
Spending half a billion dollars to widen a mile of I-5 will have exactly zero effect on daily congestion. The biggest transportation project moving forward in downtown Portland isn't something related to transit, or cyc... →
No deal: Why a CRC revival is going nowhere
Reviving the Columbia River Crossing will never happen: the two sides have incompatible aims There are continued rumblings in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area about reviving the abandoned plan to spend $3 bill... →
How tax evasion fuels traffic congestion in Portland
Tax free shopping in Oregon saves the typical Southwest Washington household $1,000 per year Cross border shopping accounts for 10-20 percent of all trips across the I-5 and I-205 bridges Tax avoidance means we're ... →
Oregon DOT admits it lied about I-5 safety
Oregon's Department of Transportation concedes it was lying about crashes on I-5 at the Rose Quarter For more than a year, we and others have been calling out the Oregon Department of Transportation for its false claims... →
Safety: Using the big lie to sell wider freeways
Oregon's Department of Transportation is lying about safety to sell a half billion dollar freeway project Fear-mongering is the one of the lowest, if unfortunately most effective, means of selling anything. Threaten a... →
Moving the goalposts
The key to being on-time and under-budget: Orwellian double-speak Oregon DOT projects are always on-time and under budget--because the agency simply disappears its original schedules and budgets. Delayed, half-fini... →
Housing reparations for Northeast Portland
Attention freeway builders! Want to make up for dividing the community and destroying neighborhoods? How about replacing the homes you demolished? One of the carefully crafted talking points in the sales pitch for the $... →
Diverging diamond blues
A key design element of the supposedly pedestrian friendly Rose Quarter freeway cover is a pedestrian hostile diverging diamond interchange One of the main selling points of the plan to spend nearly half a billion dolla... →
The great freeway cover-up
Concrete covers are just a thinly-veiled gimmick for selling wider freeways As you've read at City Observatory, and elsewhere (CityLab, Portland Mercury, Willamette Week), Portland is in the midst of a great freeway war... →
A wider freeway won’t reduce traffic
Widening I-5 actually increased crashes, instead of reducing them, and an even wider freeway won't be less congested if crashes don't decline. We're going to dig deep into Portland's proposed freeway-widening controvers... →
The death of Flint Street
A proposed freeway widening project will tear out one of Portland's most used bike routes At City Observatory, were putting a local Portland-area proposed freeway widening project under a microscope, in part because we ... →
Why we’re talking about Portland’s freeway widening proposal
Portland is a bellwether for transportation policy; is it going to take a giant step backward? Last month, the Oregon Legislature passed a $5.3 billion transportation funding bill. A central piece of this legislation is... →
What Dallas, Houston, Louisville & Rochester can teach us about widening freeways: Don’t!
Portland is thinking about widening freeways; other cities show that doesn't work Once upon a time, Portland held itself out as a national example of how to build cities that didn't revolve (so much) around the private ... →
Dying to widen highways
Oregon's DOT seems to be more concerned with making cars go faster than saving lives Yesterday, we took a look at a recent Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) "performance report" on Portland area freeways. One... →
Let’s use a marketing campaign to solve traffic congestion
Here's a thought: Let's fight traffic congestion using the same techniques DOT's use to promote safety. Let's have costumed superheroes weigh in against congestion, and spend billions on safety, instead of the other... →
Happy Earth Day, Oregon! Widening Freeways Kills the Planet!
Despite legal pledges to reduce greenhouse gases to address climate change, Portland's transportation greenhouse gas emissions are going up, not down. State, regional and city governments have adopted climate goals t... →
Happy Earth Day, Oregon! Let’s Waste Billions Widening Freeways!
If you're serious about dealing with climate change, the last thing you should do is spend billions widening freeways. The Oregon Department of Transportation is hell-bent on widening freeways and destroying the planet ... →
Happy Earth Day, Oregon! Let’s Widen Some Freeways!
If you're serious about dealing with climate change, the last thing you should do is spend billions widening freeways. April 22 is Earth Day, and to celebrate, Oregon is moving forward with plans to drop more than a bil... →
Reducing congestion: Katy didn’t
Here’s a highway success story, as told by the folks who build highways. Several years ago, the Katy Freeway in Houston was a major traffic bottleneck. It was so bad that in 2004 the American Highway Users Alliance (A... →
Climate concerns crush Oregon highway funding bill
While headlines focus on the nearly-bankrupt federal Highway Trust Fund, state and local departments of transportation across the country are facing declining revenues, maintenance backlogs, and an insatiable desire for fu... →