Reason for bad Portland traffic? (Hillsboro, Sherwood: hotel, house, to live in)

[shaun007miller]

I've lived in Sherwood since August of '09, and I can't seem to understand the traffic problem in Portland. I've been in stand still traffic during accidents and then times when there are no accidents at all. The only thing I can come up with so far is that it seems that when drivers are merging on to the freeway, they seem to enter the freeway at speeds between 30-40 mph. Then drivers on the freeway seem to slow to speeds between 30-40 mph to let them on. I used to live in Kansas City and I've never seen drivers merge this way. It seems very unsafe to merge this way, causing freeway drivers to brake suddenly and cause accidents. This is just my observation, I would like to hear other theories as this subject of Portland traffic seems to interest me quite a bit.

[sofia76]

I learned to drive in Oregon, but I have heard many a friend from out of state complain that "Oregonians don't know how to merge." I have to admit, it gets on my nerves, too! My blood pressure goes wayyy up when I see drivers just sitting there in the right hand lane letting car after car get in front of them - and they slow down to let them get in. Argh!

[Jimrob1]

I don't understand it either. I don't drive much in Portland for personal travel, but I do on a part time job I have. I don't know why people merge into a fwy or any road with a merge lane at such slow speeds. I see some driving errors here that are unbelievable for a Metro this small. Take a drive around the airport area if you want to see the lack of knowledge about merging into traffic. In front of the Embassy Suites Hotel onto Airport wy. There is a merge lane and many people just crawl into the traffic or actually stop. You will hear cars honking at the offender to move it. What a driver is suppose to do is increase speed and merge not stop or crawl along. I don't know if merging is not taught in Drivers Ed here or what the problem is, but it is a dangerous problem in this Metro.

[figmalt]

A big part of the problem is that cars merging onto the freeway don't get up to freeway speed, and they don't accommodate the cars that are already on the road. So if you're in the right lane you have to slow down if you can't get over, otherwise there would be an accident. The whole merging thing is a huge pet-peeve of mine. I could rant for hours.

[sofia76]

I think this is so true. My mom (from east coast) pointed out to me once, "You should speed UP to merge," which makes sense, right - freeway speed is higher than ramp speed? Yes? Not in Portland, apparently. It's really awful going north on the 5 when you hit Jantzen Beach. Also, apparently, people like to SLOW DOWN before they get onto the off-ramp. Why?!!

Originally Posted by figmalt

A big part of the problem is that cars merging onto the freeway don't get up to freeway speed, and they don't accommodate the cars that are already on the road. So if you're in the right lane you have to slow down if you can't get over, otherwise there would be an accident. The whole merging thing is a huge pet-peeve of mine. I could rant for hours.

[juggler]

I think a big reason for the problem is that Portland drivers are simply too "nice". They think slowing down to let people merge is a good thing, and hence the people merging have to slow down too, thus clogging the freeway.

I've seen some drivers simply stop in the middle of the road to let some pedestrian cross (not at a cross walk) and nearly cause a chain reaction rear end collision.

Lots of other weird stuff like this in the ~7 years I've been here. Attention Portlanders, stop being nice and drive correctly!!

[shaun007miller]

I was afraid I was alone on this. I get that Portland is a very populated area, thus more cars means more bad traffic, but I just can't get over the fact I find myself coming to a complete stop on a freeway. I even find it frustrating that people in the far left lane will do the same speed as the person to their left. If they want to go the same speed as the middle lane they should BE IN THE MIDDLE LANE! Anyway, what are the chances of Washington/Oregon building another bridge over the Columbia River?

[philwithbeard]

The political will of the City of Portland and the county of Multnomah are opposed to the opening up of Washington state and Vancouver to commuter traffic since, per coffee house rumor, there is no state mandate to limit urban sprawl on the north side of the Columbia River.. The replacement bridge will be built in the next 10 years or so, across the Columbia river, but the connecting highway to Downtown Portland will not be expanded wider as long as the "Greens" control Portland Politics.

The slow down and stop of rush hour commuter traffic is a direct result of low capacity freeways. This slow down and traffic stopping was quite common in Detroit, Pittsburgh, Baltimore when I lived there also. Just as you describe it; at on ramps, for no apparent reason, the traffic slows down, and comes to a completer stop. The fault is too many commuter cars for the roadway to handle at speeds. You can now see this same phenomenon starting to happen on I-205 at the SE Powell (US-26) on ramp. Again, this is the political will of the voters of the City of Portland. Urban sprawl bypassing the inner city to the benefit of people who live in suburban counties hasn't worked out for the improvement to the inner city in almost every mid-west major city. Therefore it won't improve Portland's urban center either.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

I am a lifelong resident of Portland and the way traffic is managed around this town has been one of my pet peeves for as long as I can remember.
First the whole transportation system as far as automobiles go is about twenty to thirty years out of date.
Twenty years ago, it was adequate, but there have been no major (or really minor) improvemnents since the late 70's.
In Portlands popularity and population boom, the roads and freeways have just not been able to handle the traffic increase.
Sure the portland area has a great system withe Tri-met, MAX, and the Streetcars, but in my opinion is that it is great for show and "green" bragging rights, it does not really do that much to relieve the car congestion.

The worst traffic bottleneck is trying to get from the east side to the west side.
I wish a Mayor of Portland desiring a lasting legacy would realize that by elimanating the whole Powell/Ross Island Bridge/Snaking through downtown Portland/getting through the tunnel mess with something more streamlined would garner him or her "Hero" status and immortality among the Portland residents.

I live in the Woodstock area, and travel to the high tech area of Hillsboro frequently. I takes me somteimes 40 minutes to get from my home through the tunnel. Once I get on the freeway after the tunnel it takes me 10 minutes to get to Hillsboro. That's rediculous! And if you happen to somehow god forbid get in the wrong lane, good luck having someone let you in, because they are also cheesed of about being stuck in traffic and assume you are lane jumping or "cheating" to get in line at the last minute while they have been patiently waiting for 10 minutes to move a couple hundered feet!

Also driving styles on the Eastside and West side differ vastly.
On the East side you HAVE to drive slowly. The older narrow streets combined with bike lanes, busses, congestion and pedestrians create a very slow, polite driving style.
You see someone patiently wating to get into traffic from a side street, and sometimes you let them in hoping you will have the favor returned some day.
You get stuck behind busses.
You have people crossing the streets in front of you while you are wondering if they have a death wish or something.
You just can't drive anywhere fast.

On the far West side it's a diferent story. Streets are newer, wider, well planned, and traffic moves rapidly. Far fewer pedestrians.
People drive faster and more aggressively.
An absolute 180 from the east side traffic flows.
Going from the West side to the East side is like driving in Socal and suddenly finding yourself in, well, Portland of yore.
With all the above, people will drive on the freeways as fast as they can get away with when they can, while people are merging expecting the people on the freeway to do the polite "Oregon Thing" and let them in, but the people on the freeway are just barreling along ten miles an hour over safe driving conditions.

I don't know if people are just actually clueless about merging on to freeways around here.
I like to give people a break, maybe the have an underpowered car or something, but I have come to believe that people get in their car, safe in their own little bubble, and just turn off what ever commom sense they have.

And don't EVEN get me started about idiots waving each other through 4-way stops instead of following the rules of "right of way".

[Pretzelogik]

Not only that.......they DON'T know how to fill their own gas tanks