Portland froze freeway construction in 1982 to force people out of their cars. Instead, driving more than doubled, commuter delay tripled, and fuel wasted in congestion skyrocketed sixfold. The policy didn’t just fail — it proved the opposite of what planners believed. We need policies that adhere to habits over ideals.

Sep 16, 2026 · 5:57 PM UTC

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Replying to @CascadePolicy
26 should be a freeway from North Plains to Sandy. There should be a 605 freeway from Longview to Salem going down the west side. A lot of two lane highways need to be upgraded to four lanes. Unfortunately the priority of ODOT is anything but highways.
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Replying to @CascadePolicy
“The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work” Thomas Sowell
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Replying to @CascadePolicy
Portland needs more freeways but also needs the existing ones severely upgraded. They are at least one lane short of ideal. Just the West side of Oregon alone those highways are at least 30 to 40 years out of date. Unfortunately that's not a priority for ODOT.
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Replying to @CascadePolicy @seamus908
But there’s more bike lanes 🙄
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Replying to @CascadePolicy
The biggest upgrade we need besides the Rose Quarter is a dedicated tunnel from US 26 eastbound at the Zoo exiting onto the Marquam Bridge northbound. This would eliminate a lot of congestion in the Vista Ridge Tunnel and the difficult merge onto I-405 SB. @OregonDOT
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Replying to @CascadePolicy
Stop electing politicians who think the opposite of this viewpoint.
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Replying to @CascadePolicy
Portland freeways provide that retro ‘60s vibe. The good ol’ hippy days.
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Replying to @CascadePolicy
Yes! Habits over ideals! Portland leaders need to accept that their idea of utopia is not everyone’s. We also need to quit spending money on all the bicycle stuff, we have enough. There is 1/2 of Portland that is never going to commute on a bike - as it is just not practical.
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Replying to @CascadePolicy
You guys have seriously not heard of induced demand by now? The fundamental law of highway congestion states that when congested, the travel speed on an expanded expressway reverts to its previous level before the capacity expansion. ideas.repec.org/a/eee/juecon…

The fundamental law of highway congestion revisited: Evidence from nat

The fundamental law of highway congestion states that when congested, the travel speed on an expanded expressway reverts to its previous level before the capacity expansion. In this paper, we propose

ideas.repec.org
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Replying to @CascadePolicy
The city of Portland still continues to take roads and lanes for bikes. Millions have been spent on Lombard Ave and recently millions more on Willamette Blvd.
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Replying to @CascadePolicy
Can’t leave out how the civil engineers responsible for our freeways / highways anticipated absolutely ZERO increase in population.
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Replying to @CascadePolicy
Well you have to also build trains and stuff along with it for that strategy to work.
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Replying to @CascadePolicy
Loserville USA
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