Portland Peeves (Hillsboro, Gladstone: fit in, gated, closing)

[psichick]

Originally Posted by hamellr

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6.) People who try to make Portland into whatever generic hell-hole they moved from in the first place.

Y'know, isn't that the American way though? Just like how American's believe everyone should speak English, even if they're visiting another country?

Or maybe it's a human thing. Considering how many immigrants refuse to learn to speak English and instead, create "Little _____ (fitb)" so they feel at home?

I'm starting to think people, in general, just do not know how to adapt and love to complain. Trust me. I have heard my share of people complaining about SoCal (people that moved there). I used to ask them, "then why don't you leave?" and they usually would turn around and be like, "oh but the weather is so great here, this is wonderful, that is wonderful". blah blah blah. And then I'd be like, **** then! Love the good and accept the bad, because every place has both.

Just like I will not complain about the rain, cold, or gray this winter (at least not to C-D).

[jjpop]

Originally Posted by hamellr

In all my travels I have yet to find a single city with BETTER drivers then Portland.

I guess it's all about perceptions, isn't it? I lived for 5 years in the Los Angeles area, and I found the drivers there to be the best I've ever encountered. No kidding. The focus there is on getting to where you want to go as quickly and safely as possible. The driving population, with few exceptions, has a very "we're all in this together" mindset in my opinion.

I find Portland drivers (and bicyclists and pedestrians, for that matter) to have a strange "everyone will look out for ME" mindset. So the result with drivers is you get people who will hold up traffic because they are trying to move 2 lanes over so they won't miss their turn or exit instead of just going around the block or taking the next exit and backtracking.

[SETabor]

Originally Posted by pdxMIKEpdx

What they did to Division Street west of 82nd is a perfect example of poor engineering.
But hey.......they got a couple of bike lanes in.
I didn't realize SE Division between 52nd and 82nd was such a heavily traveled bike route?

As someone who lives in the area, yes quite a few bikes use SE Division in that area- it's flatter than going through Mt. Tabor. The bigger reason was pedestrian safety for people crossing Division. There's a college and residential neighborhoods on both sides in that area. Also, by adding a middle turn lane, traffic will be smoother and the trip between 60th and 82nd will end up taking the same amount of time. I can't tell you the number of times traffic was flowing until someone had to turn left and stopped up traffic.

The bigger example of poor engineering is the entire west side of the Ross Island Bridge.

One thing that bugs me is people who don't keep their sidewalks passable. Yay! You planted your sidewalk strip and made it pretty. Now keep it trimmed so people can walk by.

[Larry Caldwell]

It has been known for decades that you can't build your way out of traffic congestion. Build new freeways and people will just do longer commutes instead of relocating nearer their jobs. The only freeway improvement that has almost universal support is the new interstate bridge, and Vancouver doesn't want a light rail track across the river.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

The bigger example of poor engineering is the entire west side of the Ross Island Bridge.

So true.
And thank you for the "insider" viewpoint of Division.

I've always said that the mayor/politician who figures out a way to reconfigure that whole mess will leave a legacy that will immortalize him or her.
Whoever does that will be a local hero.

Former mayor Vera Katz suggested covered freeways there and downtown, but got laughed at.
In retrospect, it may not have been such a bad idea.

[turquoise1]

SETabor, amen about the sidewalk paths...
As for peeves, I guess my main one is that the whole month of July seems to be an unofficial "Illegal Bottle Rocket Celebration."
There are many things that aren't peeves of mine, however; the natural beauty, the charming variety of houses, the excellent quality food, the many quaint commercial strips.
As for the political leadership, well, that tends to be ridiculous no matter where you go in the country.

[pnwmdk]

Originally Posted by Priscilla Martin

I know we all love The Rose City but are there things that peeve you?


Charles Atlas where are you?

He joined a union that told him he was working too hard and under paid, and then lobbied for new rules so YOU have to work harder and pay more.

[AndyAMG]

My only complaint is the freeway system, it hasn't changed one bit since 1985 only now there is twice the population and 3 times the amount of cars.

I commute I-5 in opposite directions of traffic flow, so it doesn't really bother me. I purposely moved to our Vancouver shop. I have a flexible schedule, I go in either side of rush hour. 7am-530PM or 10 am to ~8PM there are some things nice about being salaried.

Portland's freeway system was fine in 1985, almost no traffic even at rush hour.

As for on-ramps it's not as clear as you think it is for the person merging. My least favorite onramp is the Morrison to I-5 north bound. Many times I have had to slam on my brakes while merging because that on-ramp sets people up. It gives you literally 200 feet before you either:

a. slam into a concrete barrier. (there is no shoulder)
b. slam into the rear end of some cotton tip doing 48. or a semi slamming on its brakes becuase the 84 east bound ramp is clogged.
c. you have 3 seconds to play the speed match game. You cant floor it because of the backup in the right lane, I've narrowly missed the guard rail and had to slam on my brakes and was almost rear ended simultaneously on that on ramp.
So your only option is to slow down or in some case come to a full stop.

If people would get the hell out of the right lane and move left when they know a tricky on-ramp is coming it would make life easier.

Now my method on that ramp is to hang back from the car in front, that will inevitably slow to 25 mph for the mild corner then slowly gain speed. I hang back, get 400 feet behind, then on the down hill I gun it to get up to 70 fly through the gore strip and get in the left lane imedeatly. That's actually the safest way I have found to merge there. Otherwise, you end up stopping completely for no reason.

There a few more on-ramps like that. It's not just Portland...... Vancouver is the worst! The 3 mile stretch that contains the SR 14/I-5, Mill Plain/ I-5, fourth plain and I-5 is probably the worst on/off ramp corridor I have ever seen in my entire life. Seattle's freeway system is even worse than ours.

Long story short, I think we can all agree Portland's antiquated freeway system is terrible.

[Steve Pickering]

I thought they added a freeway since then. And the bridge on 205.

[hamellr]

Originally Posted by AndyAMG

Long story short, I think we can all agree Portland's antiquated freeway system is terrible.

I think everyone does agree. The question is what can be done about it? We can't really widen most of the Freeways at this point. We can't really add any new Freeways without destroying major neighborhoods. The City has tried to encourage cycling and mass transit, yet that gets poo-pooed as "useless liberal projects" and "waste of tax dollars."

Even if adding extra lanes and freeways were possible, real life example after example just proves that the capacity immediately gets used and we're back to the same spot. Just look at Highway 26 as a very local example.