I'll bet you 4.2 billion dollars that they go for the 12-lane option. Honestly, just look at what all of those people would have to say about such a bridge. Considering where the city of Portland went with this vote, I strongly doubt that these people will have anything to say for making a reasonably sized bridge.

Good job exurbs, screwing over the 'urb' on which your commuters are dependent.

If we're going to build a new bridge, 10 lanes makes more sense than 12. Without a barrier between the through and local lanes it's just going to result in too much weaving and likely not gain throughput over the bridge.

CalTrans has a document I'm having trouble finding that defines large elements of their freeway design policies. It states that you see almost no net benefit by having more than 5 undivided lanes in one direction.

And for those worried about traffic hitting a bottleneck at the Fremont Bridge, that's a small fix also. The Rose Quarter isn't so much a small fix, but I-405 can take more traffic southbound with a few small fixes (taking little, if any private ROI.)

WOW - The Southwest Washington RTC for the most part got it right! After almost two hours discussing tolls and amending their resolution to go forward with the Locally Preferred Option, the sentiment of the majority of the Commissioners was to charge tolls only as a last resort, and only to pay for the bridge (not for social engineering). In that the Columbia River Crossing is part of a Federal Interstate Highway, the feeling was the Federal Government should pay for 90 percent of the project with Oregon and Washington each contributing five percent. The view presented was that a toll is just another tax on the working class, but if necessary to help pay for the project, the dollar amount must be kept to a minimum.

Unlike the elitist social engineering resolutions Metro and the Adams Government passed, these people actually support their constituents instead of just the special interests. It was extremely awesome and refreshing to hear the legislators and commissioners speaking out on behalf of protecting working class commuters from paying a disproportionate and unbalanced tax to use the bridge. Included in their resolution was an amendment that all commuter tolls paid by Washington residents should be deductible from the Oregon Income Taxes paid by Washington residents who have jobs in Oregon. It was also brought up in the discussion that no place on I-5 do tolls exist, and the CRC ought not to be the place to set that kind of precedent. Furthermore, unlike the socialist dictator atmosphere of the councils in Oregon, and in accordance with Washington State law, the RTC resolution also requires a vote of the people to approve light rail.

Even though their was no discussion (other than my testimony) of bicyclists paying tolls and transit passengers paying a surcharge on fares if tolls are charged to motorists, I have nothing but praise for the direction the WTC has taken.