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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Cautionary tale on light rail

Transportation planners, policymakers and other true believers who have embraced the notion that taking away our freeways is a surefire strategy to pry us from our automobiles and force us onto mass-transit systems would be well-advised to adjust their thinking. A recent visit to that beacon of all that is green --- Portland, Ore. ---- convinces me that there is a significant amount of wishful thinking in this methodology.
During a week in the land of granola and Birkenstocks, I was treated firsthand to the pleasures of "rush hour" (there's a misnomer if ever there was one) traffic that extended well past seven in the evening while traveling on nearly every freeway serving the metropolitan region. None of the traffic jams I experienced was the result of accident or construction ---- just too many cars.
Full article here

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