I've been noticing for a while now, not only the total lack of parking that will accompany this grand make-work pseudo-Soviet project, but the near total lack of left hand turns that will come about once the whole thing is in operation.

More money for me. I can already hear my customers bitching as the meter goes up and up, as we are stuck in the monstrous traffic jam that will immediately ensue down there, or have to drive for several blocks out of the way in order to reverse direction and head for, say, the Morrison Bridge.

What's that, toy train crowd ? This won't result in a massive traffic jam, or cause cars to have to go miles out of the way in order to make it their destination at all ?

Riiiiiight. Get back to us in two years time on that one. The packs of "youths" aimlessly riding the "blade" as they took to calling the transit mall in recent years, will no doubt make the train rider's experience an interesting one, as well.

Money in my pocket, and headaches for you poor peons that don't get paid to drive down there for hundreds and hundreds of hours per year, like I do.

Forgot to add, I was driving up SW 6th and noticed many right hand turns across the tracks will be verboten, too, possibly more than left hand turns on other streets. Just one left hand turn off of Burnside between the river and the 405 would be nice. Oh well, the relative freedom of choice of turns on the mall during construction has been nice while it lasted.

Even in it's phony name, "Mall" this transportation quagmire is nothing but a boondoggle.

The idea that it will be bustling with people doing stuff other than waiting for a bus or train is pure madness.

And businesses along the way will need BIG taxpayer handouts while they attempt, but fail, to develop the doomed to fail business model that works on this "mall".

This is a sickening evolution of the local planner's and politician's reckless and foolish meddling.

All with the irrational enomor with merely the pursuit of utopia. Nevermind the lack of ever stepping closer to that fantasy.
It feels good trying.

This same disorder is adversely affecting the Columbia River Crossing and Sellwood Bridge replacement process.

Througout all of it none of the enamorites will ever face any consequences for their handiwork.

Other than that the new "mall" sounds swell.

And the reasons to NOT go downtown just keep piling up.

This will be a real boon for Portland State University. Now all their students can easily travel back and forth to the Greyhound, er, Union Station.

Hey, as long as there is retail business downtown, there'll be reasons to close streets. Once downtown becomes one big switchyard and no one goes down there, maybe they'll see.

When are these fools going to learn parking = shopping?

Like most malls, and especially this remodeled mall, it will be a dead zone-in more ways than one.

Except for the area around PSU, there was no parking allowed on the mall before the reconstruction, correct? How quickly we adapt and forget.

"the near total lack of left hand turns that will come about once the whole thing is in operation"

As a pedestrian, I feel the need to point out to you (a professional driver? really?) that the vehicle lane is the left lane. The only places left turns will be prohibited is when such a turn would result in the driver going the wrong way on a one way street (you know, like everywhere else in the city).

May I suggest familiarizing yourself with the actual layout before attempting to navigate it? Otherwise, you aren't going to make very much money. Thanks.

Vehicles will avoid the new mall just as they did the old mall.
The light rail expansion on the new mall and 205 will provide transit service "choices" to too few people to ever justify this boondoggle.
Immediately after opening the second phase, spending many millions more on along the mall and line, will unfold with more hype and story telling.
As the new mall and line ages local officials will be in a perpetual pursuit of duplicating the failures at Cascade Station, Beaverton Round, SoWa and the many transit oriented flops along east and westside MAX. Even today, 20 some years after eastside MAX opened that line is getting more and more millions in tax subsidies to spur the same development MAX proponents always claim light rail itself triggers.

I was just downtown of friday to go to my business bank. The planning weenies have done such a great job making on street parking all but impossible. Between the transit mall now posted as off limits for parking, there are lots of construction projects downtown that are also eating up what little on street parking is still available. It might be nice if all those empty contruction site parking places were open to the public after 2:00 P.M. on friday afternoons. Oh well, I hope all you folks that have retail downtown are prepared to pay for courtesy parking for your customers. Otherwise it might be wise to fold up your tent now. Downtown had just become a little less "friendly" to anyone not riding a bike or taking the public choo choo trains.

GLV, did you read my correction ? Right hand turns being forbidden was what I was trying to say about the mall itself in the second comment. I meant left hand turns elsewhere, for example at 5th and 6th off of Burnside. But it's been that way forever anyway, as you probably know.

Sorry I wasn't more clear.

Having been on 5th/6th during the construction process a fair amount, I can't help but notice the immense amount of "swerving" on the rail tracks. Was the person who laid them out drunk?

I also noticed that some of the stops are marked "Bus" instead of MAX, and are right over the MAX tracks. How the heck is that going to work? I predict we'll be seeing quite a few instances of MAX trains plowing into buses, and vice-versa.

Boondoggle is a serious understatement. This is probably the most foolish and poorly-conceived project I've ever seen. My blood pressure goes up about 40 points just thinking about it. And I'm sure there will be more of this swill in the near future during the Tram Boy Regime.

With just the east-west light rail currently, it seems there are regular crashes between trains and buses, plus the occasion shutdown of Max service due to any variety of events, from punctured gas lines downtown, to a fire somewhere along the tracks (generally in the summer) to that little event during the Topoff terrorist practice event near Lloyd Center. Even if only once or twice a month, interuptions reduce the dependability of Max, and more bus-Max interactions will further increase these interuptions.