Get Moving BC

Dwarfed by Portland

A Get Moving BC supporter recently travelled to Portland, Oregon and volunteered to email us his observations and impressions of Portland’s bridges and highways. With his kind permission, we’re able to share some of what he wrote:


-----Original Message-----
Sent: July-02-08 9:31 PM
Subject: Getting around in Portland

.... Here is the most interesting observation I have from today: While I was waiting to pick up my wife and kids who were shopping downtown, I decided to try out some of Portland’s bridges and highways. In a single hour, roughly between 3:30 and 4:30 (rush hour in almost any place you can care to imagine), I was able to cross over six or seven of Portland’s bridges (some of them in both directions) and along several lengths of freeway and roads. I was awestruck by some of their bridges and I was taking photos all the way. The bridge and highway infrastructure around Portland is awe-inspiring and more massive in scale than anything we have in the Lower Mainland. We are midgets compared to Portland. Getting around in the Portland area is a breeze compared to the Lower Mainland....

Yesterday (Tuesday), when we headed to downtown Portland from where we are staying in Beaverton (a suburb a lot like the urban/suburban part of Surrey but not as dense), we left from the Chevron station near our motel at 12:05 and proceeded north along Cedar Hills Blvd and then east along Hwy 26 toward Portland. We travelled most of the way along Hwy 26 at about 80 KmPH. At 12:17 (i.e., 12 minutes after we left the Chevron) we reached Downtown Portland at the point where Interstate 405 passes through. At 12:19 (i.e., 2 minutes later) we were in the heart of Downtown Portland at 6th Avenue and Clay Street.... Wow!.... Where in the Lower Mainland can you go in 14 minutes these days?

We were, of course, travelling in the middle of the day and there were 3 lanes minimum available to us all the way along Hwy 26 (and often 4 lanes plus on and off ramp lanes). But then again, when we came into Portland the day before around 4:00 in the afternoon along the same route it was just as fast.

Today (Wednesday) we took a slightly different route into downtown Portland. We headed out from our motel at 12:10 and headed east along route 8 (Canyon Blvd) to the junction with Hwy 217. The mileage reading on the odometer said 61092 Km. It was a little slower going along this Canyon Blvd route (mostly due to my unfamiliarity with it and the one wrong turn I made) but by 12:16 we were at the on ramp to Hwy 217 north (the Sunset Hwy) heading toward Hwy 26. The odometer read 61095 km. After a couple of minutes of driving on Hwy 217 we shifted over to Hwy 26 and we were at Pioneer Square in the centre of downtown Portland by 12:30 (i.e., 20 minutes after we left our motel). It probably would have taken less time if I hadn’t missed the first turn off and needed to double back. The odometer read 61105 which means our travel distance was 13 Km.

On our way back to the motel in Beaverton we left downtown Portland at 4:10 pm. When we left from Pioneer Square the odometer read 61147 km. Again, because of my unfamiliarity with the roads it took a bit of hunting and pecking to find our way to the on ramp to the freeway, but by 4:21 we were on Hwy 405 and we quickly reached the Hwy 26 off ramp. The odometer read 61150 km and we were heading west and there was no gridlock in sight. At 4:28 we exited Hwy 26 and turned onto Cedar Hills Blvd and headed south. The odometer read 61159 km. And by 4:37 we were back at the motel. The odometer read 61163 km. A distance of 13 km in 17 minutes during rush hour (note: Cedar Hills was a bit slower than it is for most of the day and we also had to stop and wait for a minute when the light rail crossed Cedar Hills in each direction).

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device


-----Original Message-----
Sent: July-03-08 10:22 PM
Subject: Photos

... I took a whack of digital photos of the bridges and freeways of Portland while walking along the Willamette River today. I even walked up onto some of the bridges and took photos.

As I said yesterday, the bridge and highway infrastructure around Portland is awe-inspiring and more massive in scale than anything we have in the Lower Mainland. We really are midgets compared to Portland. In fact, I’d have to say we are the Verne Troyer of the transportation world compared to Portland (the actor who plays Mini-Me in Austin Powers).

I can also say that the Willamette River is no insubstantial river and many of Portland’s bridges would fit nicely across the Fraser River. In fact most of them extend for several blocks past the river banks on both sides of the river.

But the thing that really impressed me about Portland’s freeways and highways, and even some of their bridges, is the very generous paved shoulders on both sides of the road and the fact that there are usually a minimum of three lanes in each direction with more lanes, sometimes up to five, at the on and off ramps. And the on and off ramps tend to be long and smooth and extend for a considerable distance (often with two full lanes available). Now that’s infrastructure.

And here’s an interesting story for you: While I was trying to take a picture of the massive eight-lane Marquam Bridge on I-5, which is located just north of the Ross Island Bridge and just south of the Hawthorne Bridge, I had to “trespass” onto the property of a waterproofing company across from the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. I had to go really far back into their property to get the photo I wanted and one of their people came out to check on what I was doing. When I told him what I was doing he was fine with it and he then told me that their company secretary had just come back from Vancouver, B.C. and was telling everyone how crazy the traffic congestion is in Vancouver. She couldn't believe how hard it was to get around compared to Portland.

I wish I could have spent more time exploring Portland’s bridges and highways, but I did get some excellent photos. Looking up and down the [Willamette] river is really amazing because you see bridge after bridge after bridge (note my envy). I would also have liked to ride on their light rail system a bit more than I was able to, but I’ll save that for a future visit. Their light rail cars seem very comfortable and have big windows even if they are a lot slower than SkyTrain.

Another thing that I should make note of is the fact that leaving Portland during rush hour and travelling north toward the Interstate Bridge on I-5 was a bit of a chore today. The road was quite congested. But then today is the start of their July 4th weekend down here and the Interstate Bridge is the bride they are about to replace with a new ten to twelve lane bridge. I can certainly see why they want to double the capacity of this bridge. This particular stretch of highway was also the only stretch of highway I saw in the Portland area that physically resembled the highways we have here in the Lower Mainland (old and narrow). But once we got across the bridge the highways on the Washington State side were first class with plenty of traffic lanes and great on and off ramps....

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device


-----Original Message-----
Sent: July-05-08 1:08 PM
Subject: Observation of the day

Observation of the day: three to four lanes of highway in each direction is definitely the norm here in Washington state, and in some places they have five full lanes plus on and off ramp lanes.... So why do we have such puny highways in the Lower Mainland? The extra lanes provide a lot of flexibility and they keep the through traffic separated from traffic that is entering or soon to exit the highway. It just makes sense from a safety perspective as well as from the perspective of keeping vehicles moving instead of having vehicles crawling along in gridlock spewing greenhouse gases and burning gas unnecessarily.


-----Original Message-----
Sent: July-06-08 11:09 PM
Subject: tight curves

The one thing I really noticed about our roads and bridges last night when we arrived back in the Lower Mainland was how tight the road curves are. This was really noticeable after having spent a week driving around on highways and bridges in Washington and Oregon where they have nice gradual curves that don’t slow traffic, and long on and off ramp lanes. What is wrong with us? Let’s give our heads a good shake and build some proper roads and bridges.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device


We want to thank our Get Moving BC volunteer for allowing us to post excerpts from his emails to us. We couldn’t agree more with what he has to say. Let’s give our heads a shake and start building some proper roads and bridges.

posted by Get Moving BC @ 12:12 PM