Driving Through Hell to ReachHeaven; or, Widen That Road!

Making headlines yesterday was a new list of worst places in the nation for July 4 vacation bottlenecks from AAA and American High Users Alliance. A series of federal and state highways between Portland and the Oregon coast ranked number one.

It’s not to say there will be more Oregonians on the road than, say, people in California or Florida or New York. But I’ll bet very few of their most traveled highways ever have just one lane going in each direction. That is, however, what you’ll find on major portions of Highways 99 and 18 heading from Portland towards Lincoln City. Or on Highway 26 towards Astoria, Seaside and Canon Beach.

Normally I’m not one who favors lots of new blacktop. Here in Portland I, like a lot of people, take both pride and solace in there being numerous transit options. Sure, you can drive here, but you can also bike or walk. You can take the bus, streetcar or MAX. And when you do drive, there is an entire street grid onto which traffic from major arterials can diffuse.

When you’re driving to the coast and traffic backs up, there are no other options. No rail and virtually no buses go there from Portland. And believe me: most of those country roads aren’t going to get you to your destination any faster.

So if driving a car to the coast is the only option, then the plain reality is that the ever-increasing number of cars necessitates wider roads and more of them.

For starters, there desperately needs to be a bypass of Dundee and Newberg heading southwest on Highway 99. More passing lanes are needed between McMinnville and Lincoln City. And Highway 101 needs to bypass Lincoln City and Newport. Sometimes smaller towns fret when talk of a bypass comes. They worry it’ll hurt the economy. But with wine country in the valley and beautiful beaches on the coast, there will still be plenty of people willing to detour into these towns. And as an added bonus you’ll be able to cross the street in less than a half-hour.

I grew up in McMinnville, one of the only cities along these paths that the highway bypasses. Both urbanistically and economically, my hometown is in better shape than nearby towns like Newberg because it’s not severed by merciless, endless through traffic.

Of course you can’t talk about building highways without approaching the topic of funding. And I’ll be the first one to confess that I don’t know how we’d pay for these measures. But while I can’t speak for others, I personally would be happy to pay higher taxes if it meant I never had to see Dundee again at 20 miles per hour, pinot noir notwithstanding.

Comments

[Matt]

Traffic in general in this region is pretty aweful and it seems there isn't much we can do about it without seriously considering huge modifications and major amounts of money. I5 is a disaster, 26 is bad, the Banfield is horrible until you get past I205. There just isn't the space to widen these roads and while the mass transit is getting better, it doesn't help get out of the city when travel by car is nessesary. Something needs to be done and its going to take a lot of time and money.

[Justin]

I'd seriously consider building small toll roads to bypass these smaller Oregon towns & cities on major highways - while many people are against toll roads, how else are you going to pay for them? As traffic worsens, more people will be willing to pay a few dollars to bypass these heavily congested areas, yet enough people would still travel through them (either by being cheap or by wanting to go to the town) to help support businesses in these places, such as McMinnville or elsewhere.

[Cab]

Actually these smaller roads are a godsend to the Coast. They work like a gate only allowing enough cars in without overwelming the coast. The coast can only handle so many cars, either we find another way to get people to it or leave the roads alone and let them protect the area from overloading on car crap. We need a more mature tourist infrastructure. Look around the world for other great nature wonders and how they handle the popularity.

[Keith]

Cab - I couldn't agree more, though as someone who grew up on the coast, I have to say I was much happy driving over highway 42 from Coquille to Roseburg with the widened highway and all the semi's than when my mom drove us as kids and it was a two lane winding road following along a twisting creek.

I do think the mistake Oregon makes in widening roads is to make a solid swath. Other regions with natural beauty have created parkways in which opposing lanes are not always up against each other but even as much as several hundred feet apart in places, thus giving traffic relief without the acres of blacktop.

[Ray]

Groups like the Columbia River Crossing and the State of Oregon are serious about looking at tolls. Only local way to get the federal funds matched. User fees man!

[gregg]

Can you say Sprawlegon?

Widening roads to the coast for the weekend convenience of a few would have far reaching effects beyond the initial cost. Cab has it right that the current state of access protects the coast from being inundated. Seaside is bad enough at spring break or hood to coast time. Can you imagine if access improved we'd have daily commuters living at the coast and working in PDX.

Look at 26 over the Cascades. 4 lanes there doesn't stop the backups on weekends even in good weather. Everyone returning to PDX on sunday afternoon from golfing in Sunriver begins the route debate on Saturday. How to avoid the traffic via Hood river or 22 through Salem.

Parkways over the coast range? There is barely room for two lanes on these hillsides. We spend enough fixing mudslides that continue to close 101 and highway 6 to Tillamook.

Sorry Brian you're just plain wrong on this one. Widening roads only adds traffic capacity until it gets packed again. Please stick to more important topics.

[Tor]

This blog should be retitled "Things that occur to Brian that immediately impact his world (like, say, getting stuck in traffic on the way to the coast) that he thinks of solutions for that would cost billions of dollars and wreak havoc on thousands of people, yet he has no way of paying for them or offering political redress to those affected by his dreaming"

[Brian]

Gregg, you've made some fair criticisms of my road widening post, and I realize there were some big holes to my thinking.

The following post by "Tor", on the other hand, has gotten a little personal and hostile and this blog, including the comments section, should be above that.

Obviously this blog starts with ideas I put out there. I make no claims of omniscience. And in fact, as may be the case with the road-widening post, sometimes it's possible I'm just plain wrong.

The point here is to get conversation going and exchange ideas with as much civility and intellectual rigor as possible. The point is NOT for myself or any of you to take easy pot shots.

Thanks very much to the overwhelming majority of you who have posted to this site with that kind of positive spirit in mind.

[Valarie]

I don't think that a person who posts using a fake address has any right to accuse someone else of irresponsibility.

[Weston]

I agree. Tor, be adult enough to own up to your comments.

As for widening roads. 40 bazillion miles of asphalt have taught us time and time again: you CANNOT build your way out of congestion. Look around. We've tried. It didn't work. It's ugly. We have more traffic than ever. Say no to more asphalt.

[Brandon]

The answer is more alternative ways to get there. They should have a rail line that can get us back and forth. We need alternatives and shouldn't be dependent soley on the automobile. It'd be nice if the line to Astoria would keep on going after the Lewis & Clark celebration.