“Authentic and exquisite … a unique cultural exhibit and sale.”
A BOVE T HE F RAY:
TRADITIONAL HILLTRIBE ART
Hand-woven Textiles and Select Art of Hilltribe Laos and Vietnam.
Fine Silks
Tribal Art
Village Art
New Location: Lane Events Center (Fairgrounds)
796 W. 13 th , Eugene
www.hilltribeart.com
(locally-owned)
RIVDOHVEHQHӾW0LQHV$GYLVRU\*URXS²/DRV9LHWQDPZZZPDJLQWHUQDWLRQDORUJ
viewpoint
BY MARK ROBINOWITZ
Full Speed Ahead
Lane County transportation update
L
ane County’s transportation plans are similar to those nearly everywhere
else in the U.S. as we pass peak oil — full speed ahead on road expansions
plus a sideshow of public transit upgrades.
In two decades of freeway fi ghting, I have been unable to fi nd a single
community in our country that has canceled any highway expansion plan due to
the end of cheap oil and the start of climate chaos.
Lane County’s main transportation project under way is widening I-5 via the
new, wider Willamette River bridges. Widenings at the McKenzie River and the
Highway 58 interchange were recently completed. The next focus will be the
30th Avenue interchange near LCC. Widening I-5 at 30th will require moving the
frontage roads which may displace businesses, including Sequential Biofuels.
ODOT is doing two major highway expansion studies in Lane County. The
bigger effort would expand Beltline between River and Coburg Roads, another
is to make Highway 126 six lanes in Springfi eld.
Beltline is the county’s busiest road, but mitigating safety concerns at the
Delta interchange doesn’t require expansion to 11 lanes (one of the options
drawn up for the study). A simple, cheap “low build” ramp change at Beltline/
Delta would solve the worst “weaving” problem, but politicians and bureaucrats
are not promoting cost effective solutions. The recently expanded Beltline/I-5
interchange is far larger than needed to mitigate safety problems. It was
supersized to subsidize development, not solve traffi c hazards.
Widening I-5, Beltline, 126 and similar projects are federal decisions made
by the Federal Highway Administration, they are not local decisions. However,
under Federal law, the local governments approve wish lists that the state
and feds then work to approve and implement. All of the local governments in
the Lane Council of Governments have endorsed these highway plans at the
Metropolitan Policy Committee meetings — almost entirely without meaningful
public awareness or scrutiny. One example: I was the only member of the
public to speak at a recent LCOG MPC public hearing on updating the Regional
Transportation Plan.
In November 2008, the Governor’s Transportation Vision Committee report
called for $18 billion in new and expanded ODOT highways, including $1 billion
in projects for Eugene and Springfi eld. There were three environmental groups
invited to participate in this committee, but that didn’t stop the report from
recommending lots of road widenings and new bypasses.
In December 2010, outgoing Gov. Kulongoski’s administration released
the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Sunrise Freeway, a billion
dollar plus new interstate highway in Clackamas County. Sunrise Freeway and
Sunrise Parkway would be the transportation artery for the new sprawlville of
Damascus, Oregon’s newest city. This approval also includes massive expansion
to I-205 near the Sunrise terminus — 205 would become Oregon’s widest road
if this is built. I am unaware of any organized environmentalist or community
opposition to this new freeway. Plans are also accelerating for the Newberg
Dundee Bypass, which would pave over farmland.
I asked Rep. Earl Blumenauer if he supported federal funding for Sunrise
Freeway after his March 4 keynote speech to the Public Interest Environmental
Law Conference. He replied it was overdesigned and he supports building a so-
called “parkway” on the route, although there’s no environmental difference
between the designs. Blumenauer is a Portland Democrat who champions
bicycle lanes, so-called Smart Growth and now a so-called Parkway. Peak Oil
means we need transportation triage to prioritize resources on the energy
downslope.
The only local transport project that has any public attention is the West
Eugene Bus Rapid Transit proposal. Both sides of this debate have valid points.
We certainly need better public transit, but it’s also true that this BRT line has
severe design fl aws and is overpriced.
State law requires transportation projects to be integrated with land use
plans but the West Eugene BRT did not include any efforts to stop approvals of
big box stores and other car centric designs. Worse, it is using the same fl awed
traffi c models that claimed the West Eugene Porkway would be needed because
traffi c levels are going to continue to worsen. But traffi c levels have peaked and
plateaued since gasoline prices rose.
On the downslope of peak oil it will be diffi cult to maintain existing roads and
bus transit service. Local governments know about these issues but refuse to
include them in their plans.
Mark Robinowitz was a “road scholar” who documented WEP’s legal problems, details at www.
sustaineugene.org Peak oil and peak traffic could be used to block federal highway expansions, see www.
road-scholar.org
fl ying out of pdx?
City
2
City
S H U T T L E
$
59
PDX
EUG to ay
1-w
Service to and from PDX
Serving Eugene, Albany & Salem
Reserve Now! 541-758-8001
www.city2cityshuttle.com
6 APRIL 7, 2011 EUGENE WEEKLY
let us do the driving
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM