Filling the Nooks and Crannies...
Gaps in funding and transportation surfaces appear to be getting filled in...
Questions continue regarding ODOT budget gaps and transportation design. And though the two may seem widely different, the two share a common thread… a need for a reliable and sensible transportation system.
You can’t get there without the money nor a design that incorporates the actual need to move people. Might we insert here that the funding, and the actual source of those monies being the people of Oregon, and the design, which needs to move people in a manner which will be practical for all, must be realistic.
To be a bit more direct… we the people only have X amount of money and Y amount of the people will not move out of cars and ride bikes, buses or trains… ever.
In Short
Article 1 - The Oregon Transportation Commission seems to have a handle on how to bridge the spending gaps that have widened across many of ODOT’s projects.
Looking at the numbers, It might take a spreadsheet in order to track where all these monies are being pulled and directed. And it appears that the deferring of monies and projects only means that somewhere down the line the costs will be a burden in the future.
Article 2 - Design… looking at designs and the creations that others have dreamed and built can be very en-lighting.
In this Clark County Today.com article, John Ley looks at some of the design ideas for the Interstate Bridge Replacement. In the article it states… “Transit projections have been questioned for years. Almost nobody believes the IBR projections that I-5 transit ridership will be 26,000 to 33,000 boardings a day, by 2045. C-TRAN reported that they picked up just two more daily boardings on their I-5 express buses in 2023. They carried just 525 people over the Interstate Bridge and less than 1,000 total when including the I-205 Glenn Jackson Bridge.”