DavidSterned wrote:
This, of course, is idiotic. Clark County is more economically independent of Portland than Clackamas and Washington Counties are, and as far as being "a dump", it also has a higher median income than Multnomah County does. Unlike Portland, it isn't filled to the brim with homeless camps, meth 'hoods, and nasty hipster gentrification.
And you've obviously never even been remotely near the Sunset Highway if you think that Clark County is the source of your awful traffic in the Portland area (SW Portland? No WA person works south of downtown Portland, bro). I live in the "dump" around Salmon Creek and can tell you that it usually takes me only 25-30 minutes to get to downtown Portland outside of the 7-9am window.
Salmon Creek isn't really Vancouver, though. I mean you're not in dumpy Vancouver when you're up in Salmon Creek.
And wasn't talking about sunset highway, was talking about I5. It's how Portland is set up. Traffic from Marquam Bridge to Interstate Bridge is almost all exclusively traffic for people commuting back to Washington. This back logs Portland traffic at the I-84 / I-5 interchange, which backs up the I-5 down through SW Portland on the other side of the bridge. Next time you're on I-5 during rush hour to get back to Washington, look at how many plates are Washington plates. It's like 1/3 Washington plates going over the Marquam Bridge and when you are on I-5 solidly in NE Portland during rush hour, it's about 1/2 Washington plates.
Vancouver traffic is also crippling for people on I-84 because the 84 to 205 interchange is only 1 lane, so it spills out all the way back into downtown. Once you clear I-84 beyond the 205 interchange, traffic clears up a bunch. It's all people going to Vancouver.
The city's traffic problem has worsened from areas in all parts of the Metro area, but Vancouver is by far and away the biggest factor because it all filters through 2 undersized bridges.
