Oregon

[Bickendan]

And unfortunately, light rail will only address so much when trying to service sprawl.

[Sub-Urbanite]

Let's just let this sink in for a second: $26 billion.

That's 8 CRCs. That's the entire MAX system, tripled. Even if that is a gross overestimate — even if that's half that, $13 billion... that's... stunning.

And, given the challenges of construction — buying right of way for a roughly 50 mile corridor, building a new bridge over the Columbia, tunneling under Cornelius Pass ... yeah, I could see a project getting to $26 billion.

[Hurricane Rex]

Let's just let this sink in for a second: $26 billion.

That's 8 CRCs. That's the entire MAX system, tripled. Even if that is a gross overestimate — even if that's half that, $13 billion... that's... stunning.

And, given the challenges of construction — buying right of way for a roughly 50 mile corridor, building a new bridge over the Columbia, tunneling under Cornelius Pass ... yeah, I could see a project getting to $26 billion.

If we cut costs and say don't bore a tunnel under the Chehalem and Tualatin mountains (totally possible), and don't run it along an urban corridor (namely 185th, which would cause extreme damage to the surrounding areas, but would be most beneficial, Cornelius Pass and especially Brookwood parkway are better options. Heck, if you go in the urban gap between Hillsboro and Cornelius, there is no urban areas to deal with), and don't bring it back to Vancouver, instead bring it back to Battleground or Woodland or Longview, I think cutting the cost to sub $10 billion isn't out of question. They did say $26 billion for road and transit improvements so I don't know if that is for the entire area, or if a MAX line will be put near this.

LG-TP260

[Sub-Urbanite]

Let's just let this sink in for a second: $26 billion.

That's 8 CRCs. That's the entire MAX system, tripled. Even if that is a gross overestimate — even if that's half that, $13 billion... that's... stunning.

And, given the challenges of construction — buying right of way for a roughly 50 mile corridor, building a new bridge over the Columbia, tunneling under Cornelius Pass ... yeah, I could see a project getting to $26 billion.

If we cut costs and say don't bore a tunnel under the Chehalem and Tualatin mountains (totally possible), and don't run it along an urban corridor (namely 185th, which would cause extreme damage to the surrounding areas, but would be most beneficial, Cornelius Pass and especially Brookwood parkway are better options. Heck, if you go in the urban gap between Hillsboro and Cornelius, there is no urban areas to deal with), and don't bring it back to Vancouver, instead bring it back to Battleground or Woodland or Longview, I think cutting the cost to sub $10 billion isn't out of question. They did say $26 billion for road and transit improvements so I don't know if that is for the entire area, or if a MAX line will be put near this.

LG-TP260

Without extensive grade cuts — which are just never going to happen in Oregon, because both of environmental impacts and because of post-Eddyville flashbacks — there's just no feasible way to get over the Tualatin Mountains. As for an alignment, buying people's farms is still expensive. It might be nominally cheaper than buying homes, but... it's still expensive.

[vdeane]

Looks like Oregon is moving forward on the tolling in Portland.  Looks like those of us who aren't local and don't do bill by mail are going to have to clinch everything soon, or we won't be able to.
https://www.opb.org/news/article/portland-oregon-toll-federal-approval-vote/

[Hurricane Rex]

Looks like Oregon is moving forward on the tolling in Portland.  Looks like those of us who aren't local and don't do bill by mail are going to have to clinch everything soon, or we won't be able to.
https://www.opb.org/news/article/portland-oregon-toll-federal-approval-vote/

Or hope the voteontolls.com initative passes in 2020, banning non-voter approved tolling on facilities that existed on and before Jan 1 2018.

LG-TP260

[Hurricane Rex]

IP 10 has submitted their sponsorship signatures (about 1450 including myself). http://www.dailyastorian.com/da/capital-bureau/20180823/measure-requiring-voter-approval-of-tolls-moves-forward

LG-TP260

[Hurricane Rex]

There was a govenor debate 2 days ago. One of the things that were brought up were the transportation package. Context: Govenor Brown went on the attack against Buehler (the republican challenger) for voting against the transportation package back in 2017, and against progress. Buehler then went back in the attack saying that he voted no for 2 reasons. 1 it didn't go far enough to fix our problems, and 2, it requires tolling on Portland's freeways. True question should be, what would be do to change it?

Wait, those are the same points I've been making.

LG-TP260

[Hurricane Rex]

Around 15 years or so ago, ODOT had a plan to improve the last few miles of the eastern section of 34 in Lebanon.  Having not been on that section in many years nor having heard anything about improvements, do you have any word on such a project Jason?

Rick

Doing a search of ODOT's projects with the filter being "must involve Lebanon, only the project Jason mentioned came up unfortunately. None was also mentioned in the transportation package'd projects.

I'm gonna try looking on the Wayback Machine to see if such a project was ever listed on ODOT's Region 2 projects page. I'll report back if I find anything of interest.

The area is posted at 50, but many people drive way faster than that

Really? Then raise it if people go way faster than that especially if this stretch of road is safer. I don't know, how does 60 sound?

I can see 55 being an option for the part east of I-5. I'm not sure if there's any grade separation west of I-5 apart from the 99E interchange. If so, I could see 60, but 55 otherwise. (I-5 between Albany and Eugene, however, should be at least 70.)

Update on this done project: The 50 zone that I previously reffered to that needed to be raised has been raised to 55 mph. The 40 zone around I-5 still remains. It was 50 for a long time even after the barrier was added and this is a welcome change IMO.

LG-TP260

[jakeroot]

Buehler then went back in the attack saying that he voted no for 2 reasons. 1 it didn't go far enough to fix our problems, and 2, it requires tolling on Portland's freeways. True question should be, what would be do to change it?

Did you mean "what would we"?

In either case, I'm not sure what you're trying to say.

[Hurricane Rex]

Buehler then went back in the attack saying that he voted no for 2 reasons. 1 it didn't go far enough to fix our problems, and 2, it requires tolling on Portland's freeways. True question should be, what would be do to change it?

Did you mean "what would we"?

In either case, I'm not sure what you're trying to say.

I meant what would he do to change it.

All I'm saying is if you don't like the transportation package, provide an alternate proposal or say the system is fine as-is with the quoted paragraph especially since you are running for the highest office in Oregon.

You in this case means Knute Buehler.

[jakeroot]

Ahh, got it.

Yes, that's rather annoying when politicians shoot down proposals, but fail to present alternatives. Or at the very least, alternatives that provide the same amount of funding, just from other sources. Too often, the alternative proposal is to bring in less money, but cut down on the original proposal.

Up here in WA, the conservatives in the legislature tried to cut back the Sound Transit RTA tax, but were unsuccessful as they failed to find an alternative funding method. This was especially important, as voters had already approved the tax and what it paid for, so being able to provide that exact same level of funding was essential.

[Hurricane Rex]

Just found this in a Corvallis park. Looks a lot like the 1970s style to me.

LG-TP260

[Hurricane Rex]

Another episode of interesting signage in Corvallis

LG-TP260

[pdx-wanderer]

A little bit of "Craig County" on a pretty new looking sign on the OR 217 freeway.

[sparker]

Another episode of interesting signage in Corvallis

LG-TP260

Any way to map out just where this sign is located? -- (obviously EB on an arterial south of 20/34)  The blue signage on the bottom is likely locally-posted, while the top looks like cookie-cutter ODOT stock.  But it's too new a sign to predate the designation change from US 99W to OR 99W, so it's clearly an error of discernment. 

And why is the US 99W portion of the sign on hinges, with a clasp on top of the I-5 trailblazer to hold the lower part shut covering the upper portion?  If I had to venture a guess, it's a sign posted to give exit egress directions during OSU events, possibly near their stadium. 

[Hurricane Rex]

Another episode of interesting signage in Corvallis

LG-TP260

Any way to map out just where this sign is located? -- (obviously EB on an arterial south of 20/34)  The blue signage on the bottom is likely locally-posted, while the top looks like cookie-cutter ODOT stock.  But it's too new a sign to predate the designation change from US 99W to OR 99W, so it's clearly an error of discernment. 

And why is the US 99W portion of the sign on hinges, with a clasp on top of the I-5 trailblazer to hold the lower part shut covering the upper portion?  If I had to venture a guess, it's a sign posted to give exit egress directions during OSU events, possibly near their stadium.

Surprise! Its westbound and north of US 20/OR 34. I would guess the same thing to your theory with the OSU games.

Location: 4492 NW Harrison Blvd

https://goo.gl/maps/eMza9WUwEmD2

LG-TP260

[sparker]

^^^^^^^^^^^
Just looked at "south" vs. "north" on the 99W sign.  Must be brainfreeze -- or just getting addled in my dotage (hit 70 next year!).  Of course it's on something WB (sigh!). 

[Hurricane Rex]

^^^^^^^^^^^
Just looked at "south" vs. "north" on the 99W sign.  Must be brainfreeze -- or just getting addled in my dotage (hit 70 next year!).  Of course it's on something WB (sigh!).

Location on mqp if you want to know that as well.

LG-TP260

[mrsman]

Seems to me a very far out bypass only to be used in extreme traffic.  Probably after football games, when some traffic is directed west even though 99w is quite a way to the east.

Nexus 5X

[Hurricane Rex]

Rant warning:

Some of you may remember me attempting to propose a speed limit raise on 99W through Sherwood. This failed but instead, speed cameras were put in to "increase safety." I've already heard of 2 serious crashes, and 80,000 tickets have been written in a month. For the record, about 289,000 went over the laws tolerance zone last year (2017). My predictions came true, this is IMO the worst place to place a speed camera, driver behavior didn't change except around the signals that have it (about 2 miles apart). Its also being called on the community page a "disco party." Why politicians like their $$$, even at the cost if road safety baffles me. Originally I was the only comment saying "don't put them in," and now there are more people saying it's bad/not the best/etc. I try not to do "I told you so" statements, but I have to make an exception here, just because I know this town better than most here (if not all), and how ignorant the city council/police chief seemed to be.

LG-TP260

[MNHighwayMan]

That's because they pretend it's about safety, while it's really about revenue.

[nexus73]

The city of Port Orford has as part of their city budget the revenue from traffic tickets.  The limit there is 30 MPH.  Be sure to not exceed it!  As for what the public thinks, the last law enforcement levy was voted down.  If all the city police do is issue tickets and do little to stop criminals, guess what that does for public support?

Rick

[Bickendan]

I wonder if a ballot petition could get going to ban red light and speed cameras statewide...

[Tarkus]

My experiences driving through the 99W/Roy Rogers/Tualatin-Sherwood intersection back in 2010, when the red light cameras were first installed, was a catalyst in making me a fierce opponent of photo enforcement.  I didn't get flashed, thankfully (and even if I had, it was still in the "warning phase"), but I saw firsthand how engineering problems were being manipulated for financial gain, having a close call with an extraordinarily short signal phase (let all of 3 cars through before turning yellow) on the Roy Rogers approach.  It was a terrifying experience.  I also got a little more "terror" just a couple miles later, when I ran across Tualatin's new red light cam at Tualatin-Sherwood and Avery (a signal which, thankfully, stayed a steady green, allowing my heart rate to finally start coming down after I passed through).

Oregon did recently allow red light cameras to also be used as speed cameras, via 2017 HB2409 (in large part due to Beaverton's lobbying efforts, and PBOT's earlier lobbying to allow fixed speed cameras in the first place)--if those cameras in Sherwood have indeed racked up 80,000 tickets, that's an insane number, and not entirely surprising, given how messed up that stretch of highway is.

There may actually be one little weapon at least in this case, however--the city limits of Sherwood appear to go diagonally down the middle of the 99W/Sunset intersection, meaning that half of the intersection and some of the equipment (facing the southbound 99W traffic) may not actually be within Sherwood.  While police can pursue violators outside city limits, photo enforcement is a different story, AFAIK.  Beaverton got their butts handed to them for running photo radar outside the city limits (with an illegal 25mph speed zone they invented, too) back in the '90s, and indeed, the southbound photo enforcement may be legally questionable.

I'd absolutely love to see them go the way of the dodo.  Sadly, Oregon seems to be bucking the national trend of late and expanding their use considerably (Tigard is getting them now, too).  It would take a very well-funded and smart campaign to pull off a ballot measure to ban them here statewide.  Other approaches would entail going the "nickel and dime" route, as was done in Washington (getting bans on the ballot in individual cities), or some of the end-arounds they've done in Arizona (i.e. requiring that the motorist be served the violation notice in 180 days, with the mailed violation notice having no official legal merit).