The RTC’s Regional Transportation Plan includes $3.3 Billion for a I-5 bridge replacement. That’s outrageous, given that Clark County citizens rejected the CRC, with its one-minute improvement in the morning commute.
The RTC’s 2008 “Visioning Study” for 2050, identified the need for two additional bridge crossings, one west of I-5 and the other east of I-205. Why are there are no other bridges in your plan for 2040?
Spending $3.3 Billion indicates you’re including light rail with this project. Yet Clark County citizens reject light rail, every time they’re asked.
Is there a need for any transit component on a replacement Interstate Bridge?
We have 310,000 vehicles crossing the river on an average day. That’s nearly three times the 109,000 vehicles crossing in 1982, just prior to the opening of I-205 and the Glenn Jackson Bridge.
Portland now has the nation’s 10th worst traffic congestion. Surely there is a significant demand for mass transit, right?
In a word: “No!”
People prefer their cars. The recent PEMCO survey indicated 94 percent of people in the Pacific Northwest prefer their privately-owned vehicles.
C-Tran operates the only mass transit service to cross the river. It presently operates seven “express” bus routes into Portland. Five of them run the I-5 corridor and two run the I-205 corridor.
How many people ride these express buses a day? Have those numbers increased, as traffic gets more congested?
No. In fact, express bus ridership is declining. In 2018, just 1,422 people rode C-Tran “express” buses into Portland daily.
That 1,422 person figure represents a 13 percent decline from 2013. Assuming one person per vehicle, the 1,422 people on the buses represents less than one-half of one percent of the daily crossing traffic.
A 2010 C-Tran stakeholder survey indicated “improving service to Portland” is in the bottom half of C-Tran rider’s desires.
Total C-Tran bus ridership peaked in 1999 at 7.7 million riders. We’re down to about 6.1 million bus riders annually — a 20 percent decline. Yet Clark County population increased 36 percent from 2000 to 2017.
And, in case you’re wondering, TriMet’s bus ridership has declined by over 9 million riders, comparing the 2009 peak with 2018.
We need new bridges and new transportation corridors before replacing the Interstate Bridge. We need lanes, not trains. That $3.3 Billion could easily build two or three bridges without light rail, across the Columbia.
