Highway onramp traffic lights

[HeavyMetal BankFisherman]

Can anyone explain why they would put those traffic lights on the onramps to highway 26 downtown? You used to be able to breeze right through to 26 from I-405 or Clay street. They are using those lights that have popped up on all of the highway onramps. I can understand those lights when traffic is merging into one lane. But at this location each ramp turns into it's own lane. At this location all they do is backup traffic. Clay street now gets backed up for seven or eight blocks. The intersection at 13th and clay is a nightmare with people going onto the highway blocking 13th. And I-405 backs up worse than it did before. I am trying to understand the logic of this. Can anyone show me the light?

Here'e a visual aid:

[DanS]

An idiotic idea. I hate them. I don't need a traffic light to tell me how to get on the freeway. The really funny part is when you get a red light and there's this big gap in traffic, and then the light turns green just as the 18-wheeler with 30 cars backed up behind it get to the ramp.

Just a way to move the backup from the freeway to the arterials. A traffic-engineering brainstorm.

[Silver Hilton]

Dan, you are eactly right, they are moving the backup. I worked on a neighborhood committee on this a while back. They are throttling the input to the freeway, to improve the throughput of the freeway. The idea is to keep freeway velocity high, or otherwise the aterial traffic won't get on, anyway. I guarantee you they have counters and computer models that will show you how this improves throughput. Most probably, there is merge volume betwen those lanes that they are trying to throttle down.

You could probably call the city and talk to one of the traffic engineers if you want to know the detail. Used to be Greg Jones.

[HeavyMetal BankFisherman]

I don't think the city is responsible for this section of road because it is a US highway. But they are probably involved. I used to work at one of the big civil engineering firms in Portland. These are the guys that get the contracts to spend taxpayer money on all of these projects. They do a good job but they charge twice what they should. And they waste too much time. Ands the politics involved in the industry. Needless to say, I don't work there anymore.

[1pump]

The city's on a roll. If the St John's bridge plan stays as is it'll be down to 1 lane each direction- permanently. That way the bike lanes will fit.
Cut the bridge's capacity in half to accommodate a few bikes. Brilliant.

The current mentality seems to center around the theory that if driving becomes too difficult, then you won't drive.
Traffic problem solved.

[Spotted Owl]

So the pan handlers have more access to people in the cars while they are stopped and waiting for their light to turn :grin: :grin:

[Thumper]

It used to be called "social engineering". Remember when they tried to force everyone who wanted to go to the zoo to ride Max? A classic example of someone who knows better than we do what is good for us. There's a name for those folks, but it is political.

[Thumper]

(Oh, and by the way the name is not "conservative") :smile: