Comments on: Vancouver City Council reviews Interstate Bridge Replacement Program with emphasis on light rail, mobility and downtown development

By: John Ley

John Ley — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 20:21:32 +0000

In reply to Rhea.

Rhea — good question, but in the minds of politicians there are HUGE differences.

Cars and trucks need more lanes and more transportation corridors. It’s been 40 years since a new bridge and transportation corridor was built in the region — I-205.

But “people” can be moved by light rail or bus rapid transit or regular transit. People can also ride their bikes or walk.

Eric Holmes was reflecting what several members of the Vancouver City Council said they wanted — an emphasis on transit and light rail, rather than cars and trucks and actually reducing traffic congestion.

By: Rhea

Rhea — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 19:44:40 +0000

Eric Holmes said, "The bridge itself (should be) focused on mobility as opposed to traffic management, recognizing traffic management is a component of that, but it’s about moving goods and people, not necessarily cars and trucks.” I am interested to know how he differentiates between "goods and people" and "cars and trucks". Aren't they basically the same when addressing crossing the river using the bridge?

By: Rhea

Rhea — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 19:37:26 +0000

In reply to K. Pro. Agreed!

By: K.J. Hinton

K.J. Hinton — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 00:07:29 +0000

That they elect morons like this results in the stupidity of their governance. Do we really expect those who won’t pay for or use this bridge to be balanced and focusing on congestion relief which is the ONLY acceptable reason for replacing a safe, paid-for bridge?

Of course not. It’s a leftist fantasy to have our $40,000 investments permanently sitting in our driveways while they feed outrageously expensive, massively overpriced contracts to their buddies who own them.

By: John Ley

John Ley — Sat, 26 Jun 2021 03:51:50 +0000

In reply to David.

MAX light rail is $200 to $240 million per mile in the Portland metro area.

In Seattle, their last extension ran roughly $800 million per mile.

It’s outrageously expensive.

And as you noted, it’s extremely slow.

The MAX Yellow line travels about 10 mph.

By: David

David — Sat, 26 Jun 2021 02:45:28 +0000

In reply to K. Pro. Spot on! The MAX is way too slow and expensive;over $20M per mile. We should not be forced to adopt this ill-conceived mistake. Dedicated express bus lane instead or combined bus / HOV lane

By: Myself

Myself — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 19:02:06 +0000

I suggest a tunnel. No effect on up river business. No worries about height for Parsons Airfield. Won’t divide waterfront wth massive structure.
They dug a tunnel under Seattle
How about helping us out down here in Southern Washington

By: Emanuel McCray

Emanuel McCray — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 01:13:26 +0000

Once again I have to show the City how dumb I am. I believe it costs money to po nder the idea. So if we stop pondering we will save a lot of money. So the last time I opposed this boondoggle it was because light rail could not operate over more than a 6% slope. So to make the City’s idea work, you would have to reduce the slope to no more than 4%. If this us done, the Columbia would be shut down to half of its current traffic. This is where I get really dumb. You can’t build a 4% or 6% slope starting at Hayden Island and expect to land in downtown Vancouver. Ask an engineer what it would really look like. I’m so dumb, yet I can’t seem to lose the fight against the proponents. Go figure.

By: jim

jim — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 07:45:20 +0000

Sara Fox shows her failure to do her homework when she said:
“All studies show you can add 10 more lanes, and people will just get in their cars and fill up all those lanes,” she said. “It just doesn’t take much time; so there has to be some other tools to help manage, and keep those lanes flowing.”

Sara, do you really expect people to drive to work TWICE each morning? Or are you expecting people who live & work in Washingto to take a side trip accross the river on their way to work?

You would be a lot smarted and better informed if you quit reading outright lies from the likes of the Sierra Club, WWF,& Al Gore.

By: K. Pro

K. Pro — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 03:20:25 +0000

My personal experience,having lived indifferent metro locations in Michigan and Georgia, lite rail has brought more problems than solved. You still have to drive to the stations, cars are vandalized while parked for the day, so the use is abandoned by many. The best work was to bring in additional highways. Atlanta brought what was referred to as a outer perimeter. If you did not need to go into the core of the City, you drove around it. If you drove a delivery truck and did not have a deliver into the city,you used the outer perimeter.

Look at the current light rail in PDX, not very well used and over paid for…doesn’t make much sense….