That’s architect Rick Potestio’s idea for how to improve Portland’s freeway system. Potestio’s plan is one of five idealized versions of the Columbia River Crossing project put forward in an innovative show from PDXplore that combines architects and artistically-inclined transportation nerds. The show “Crossing the Columbia: What Does it Mean?” is currently up at Pacific Northwest College of Art, but its also all online if you’re one of those people who doesn’t like to leave their sofa. Either way, you should check out this hilarious photo I took at the exhibition.
The five ideas for how to re-do the five miles of I-5 the CRC project covers range from interesting to vague, philosophical, architecture-keyword rambling, but the main gist is this: if we’re going to be investing $2-3.6 billion in the biggest transportation project in our region’s history, we should take the opportunity to do something really innovating that actually reworks major flaws in our transportation system. Not just build a bigger, uglier version of a freeway we already have.
That’s why I was really struck by Potestio’s idea, sketched at right: we should use the money to downsize our freeway system, rather than expanding it, including removing I-5 from the east bank of the Willamette and building an Eastside Waterfront Park. “With the freeway system downsized, our region can begin the important transition to alternative modes of transportation,” writes Potestio.
Sigh. In my dreams.
Oh man, Blabby is just going to love this.
I’ve thought for years that removing I5 from the Eastbank and the (earthquake-prone) Marquam bridge would do more than any other single measure to improve not only Portland’s livability, but also its attraction to visitors. If you did it right with the right amenities (like a public market) it would actually encourage tourists to spend a couple of days in Portland, instead of just using the city as a base to see the scenery nearby. Combined with the image it would send to the world, it would be a huge boon for that large sector of the local economy (which includes conventions, btw). It would also open up the inner Eastside to housing development etc – nobody would want to live there right now.
Combined with some re-engineering of the Fremont bridge off ramps, it would actually reduce the congestion clusterf*ck by the Rose Quarter caused by all the traffic trying to get off I5 onto I84 (a much bigger traffic bottleneck than the bridge, let’s face it).
So, somewhat counter-intuitively, I think it would actually help not hinder the local economy, even if you ignore ideological desires.
Unfortunately, it would dump a load more traffic onto MLK and Grand through the Central Eastside. And increase the I405S -> Sunset highway bottleneck. Unless you can find an alternative for those two chokepoints, it’s a non-starter.
And my nightmares.
I’d love to see the eastbank opened up. But tearing out I-5 on the eastbank, without substantial upgrades to I-405 (i.e., making it 5 lanes wide), would force even more traffic onto I-205 and diminish the quality of life on the eastside.
If you want to open up the eastbank, maybe move I-5 a few blocks east and trade out the right of way? That will be popular, right?
We could replace it with a bloody bike lane.
This kind of idiocy defies all logic. Then again, spending money to make a problem worse is what Portland does best.
Cars are the future of transportation, though with any luck they’ll be running on something other than fossil fuel. That’s my dream, but my dreams tend to have at least some semblance of reality weaved in.
Even if tomorrow someone invents a miracle engine that is cheap to build, doesn’t need fuel, and produces no emissions….you are still gonna be stuck in 5pm traffic. The planet will be happier, but people won’t.
“That’s my dream, but my dreams tend to have at least some semblance of reality weaved in.”
Worst dreams ever.
Wow, that would be fucking stupid.
Is there a substantive difference in regards to being stuck in traffic in a car or on a bus, or on the MAX, or on a bike, or a hovercraft? Waiting is waiting. Unless businesses start to stagger when they want people to show up for work and when they let them leave, there’s always going to be congestion. Building smaller highways ain’t going to change that.
@CH: You’re right that we’ll never get completely rid of congestion. But you can reduce it. Commute times in Vancouver, BC, have gone down over the last twenty years, even as the city has grown. That seems like a target that everyone, of any political persuasion, could get behind. And they didn’t achieve that by building bigger freeways.
Oh, and yes – I’d much rather be stuck stationary on a MAX than in a car. At least you can stretch your legs, relax, read, talk on the phone, and not have to concentrate on the cars around you in case you have to move!
Portland (and Oregon)’s reputation is built on far-sighted decision made in the 70s. Without them, the city would be another Detroit right now. When was the last time a decision was made that had as much of an effect as getting rid of Harbor Drive? I doubt if you’ll find a person in the city who now thinks that was a bad idea. Now would be a great time to complete the second half of the job, clearing the East bank as well.
TOLLS
Cars take up an ungodly amount of space: on the road, parking, everywhere they are, they are huge compared to the passengers they carry. A full road = congestion. Until we get a per-vehicle toll in the central city, there’s going to be a ton of congestion.
And the more urban freeways get demolished, the better. What a stupid idea.
Yay, even more gridlock!
Are commute times in Portland that bad to begin with? No one likes sitting in traffic, but seems like Portland’s is fairly tame, and doesn’t seem to be getting much worse, though I’m fortunate enough to not have to get on the freeway to get to/from work, so i’m hardly an authority.
I wasn’t around in the 70s, so I can’t speak to the kind of street that was, but I doubt it was a main west coast artery serving hundreds of thousands of vehicles every year.
Being stuck on the MAX is only better than being stuck in a car if the MAX isn’t crowded to the gills with people, as it often is during rush hour. Rush hour is rush hour for every conveyance.
I don’t think this proposal goes far enough.
The problem is obviously that people want to go places. Just imagine if we could cut off all of our legs and arms. We couldn’t drive a car, steer a bike, or even walk! No one would ever go ANYWHERE! Picture no streets, no paths, not even sidewalks!
That’s utopia, right Portland? A bunch of losers sitting around with nowhere to be and no business to attend to. That would show the world the right way to live!
“I’m so righteous, I don’t go fucking anywhere all day long! Thanks for killing the planet fucktards!”
I say we tunnel the CRC. New York has shit tons of under water tunnel crossings all of which cost less than 100 mil. China just built the longest tunnel in the world for 1.5 billion (I’m stretching my point here). But what’s this 4 billion dollar bridge bullshit? Might as well ferry people from WA down the Willamette and drop them off in Sellwood. With the saving from the tunnel we could tear down I-5 on Eastbank and make more tunnels! MORE TUNNELS! Out of sight and out of mind. MORE TUNNELS
This would be horrible. The traffic through 405 is already awful.
Tolls are the right answer. a) the people who use the service pay the bulk of the service. b) you reduce traffic while not reducing access. c) given today’s technology, people can have devices to automatically pay tolls as they drive through waypoints keeping traffic flowing smoothly.
A tunnel is an excellent idea, but like all excellent ideas it doesn’t fit within the preapproved box of what is and is not acceptable therefore has absolutely no chance of being noticed by people with the authority to make it happen. Sorry.
LOLOL! Dudes! That’s how the Portland freeways WERE before the 5 came in with the 70 MPH design criteria and those mid-century living rooms on wheels! LOLOL!!!!
Everything that goes around, comes around!
It is a brilliant idea to do away with the above ground monstrosity that now holds back the development of the east-side. The economic boom that would evolve out of this is worth the few billion it would cost to redo the whole waterfront. It can be replaced with high rise living, a new water front park and bike way. The views for all would be spectacular, the sustainability of living closer to downtown would encourage more biking and (gasp) walking and the use of light rail. Whether it is torn down or replaced by a tunnel, both are the best option then leaving it there to suffocate the Downtown east side while keeping it separated from west side Portland.
The 5 is a major interstate trucking lane, which 205 was built to alleviate the truck congestion and that didn’t work. What needs to happen is a freeway extended from 217/26 northward through Forest Park/Linnton and reconnect to 5 at the current north end of the Interstate Bridge in the Couve. Remember when Central WA was flooded out in winter of ’07 and all northbound trucks had to go east on 84 then north thru central WA? There was wide open rush hour traffic for 2 weeks straight in the 5 corridor! The problem is too many trucks, not cars.