Excerpted from Rex’s April newsletter:
Regional and local transportation officials have recognized the need for a connection between I-5 and Hwy. 99W for more than a decade. Traffic demand in the southwestern portion of the region has grown substantially, leading to increasingly congested conditions.
Metro Councilor Carl Hosticka serves on the I 5 to 99W Connector Project Steering Committee with other elected officials from Washington and Clackamas counties and the cities of Wilsonville, Tualatin and Sherwood, as well as officials from the Oregon Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration. The committee is currently working to identify a corridor where transportation improvements could be located.
The Project Steering Committee recently adopted a purpose and need statement and a set of goals and objectives. These documents will guide the development of alternatives in the study. The adopted purpose and need statement and goals and objectives are posted on the project web site at www.i5to99w.org.
Though the project alternatives have not yet been defined, they are likely to include options that range from only improvements to existing streets and demand management solutions to options that look at new roadway connections. The project team will develop evaluation criteria, analyze future transportation needs and study the community and environmental features in the study area. The project will host an open house early next fall to begin identifying potential transportation corridors.
The project team will meet with community groups this spring and summer to share information about the project?s progress. Call 503.595.9915 or send email to info@i5to99w.org to request a speaker for your group.
5 responses to “I-5 to 99W Connector Project Steering Committee studies ways to improve traffic movement in the area”
Oh good god. I work in Tigard, which is part of the area.
Let me sum up the entire reason traffic sucks there:
Not enough roads!
You have 99, Barbur, and I-5. There really are no other N-S roads. Hardly any streets are through, so you can’t get anywhere unless you drive down the major arterials.
They don’t need a(n) I-5 to 99 connector; they need 50. And not all should be 4 lane roads; but lots and lots of smaller streets. The grid will always be superior for connectivity and capacity than an arterial-collector system.
The Tualatin industrial area has virtually no transit service. I think there remains a small shuttle started by the now defunct TMA.
On Swan Island 20% plus get to work on transit, via bike, in vanpools and carpools. Going Street and Basin Avenue are not now and are not projected to be congested. Time to do a little TDM in the SW sector.
OK, so is this a good time to suggest that the Tigard-to-Beaverton and McMinnville-to-Milwaukie commuter rail lines, with supporting bus service, might be feasible alternatives to new road construction in this area?
Yea, but an additional problem is the connectivity of the neighboring towns in the area: if you want to, for instance, travel from LO to Tigard or Tualatin, there are only a couple of roads that allow you to get there!
These same roads, however, double as the gateways to the freeway entrances & exits… so traffic congestion quickly gets out of control. Trying to funnel 125,000 cars through just 3 or 4 roads is a recipe for congestion.
If you have a large set of lower capacity, slower speed roads, however, all connecting the same points, you can spread out the congestion without having to spend hundreds of millions on special interchanges & intersections.
This is the largest shortcomings of the suburbs – lack of connectivity in them.
Transit is part and parcel as well, but its not going to be very effective when all the busses get stuck in traffic on those congested 6 lane highways along with everyone else. And relatively few people want to walk along and wait for a bus along a busy 6 lane highways.
Lenny Anderson Said:
>”The Tualatin industrial area has virtually no transit service. I think there remains a small shuttle started by the now defunct TMA.
On Swan Island 20% plus get to work on transit, via bike, in vanpools and carpools. Going Street and Basin Avenue are not now and are not projected to be congested. Time to do a little TDM in the SW sector.”