Maybe Metro just hasn't mentioned the part yet about additional lanes being just for bikes...

So Metro found a new place to jam in some more food carts.

How fitting

Not so far-fetched, Mr. Grumpy. Remember recently some of the bike advocacy groups were calling for a dedicated bike path the length of Sullivan's Gulch, adjacent to the RR line. A major obstacle cited were the (pesky) private property owners that didn't seem too enthused about the idea. To paraphrase LtCol William Kilgore: "I love the smell of eminent domain in the morning..."

Needs more light rail.

The Sullivan's Gulch has already been mapped out with some sort of funding grant, but there is no funding to build the bike trail itself. The slacker bicyclists who will use it as always want somebody else to cover the price tag. There may however some short section and relative useless demonstration projects funded with gas tax dollars.

Is it possible a widening of I-84 is for drivers who want to avoid the proposed
Excessive tolls on the CTC and use the 205 crossing. Maybe the Sullivan's Gulch bike trail should be a toll trail to pay for any I-84 widening project just like the current proposal for the CRC where the highway users are being embezzled to pay for the bicycle infrastructure on both the bridge and attached to the project, that once again bicyclists are hot expected to pay for, but can picnic on. A little equity would be approptiate!

...some of the bike advocacy groups were calling for a dedicated bike path the length of Sullivan's Gulch, adjacent to the RR line.

Was this advocated for before the "coal train" proposed to come through?
How healthy to have a bike path adjacent to the coal dust!
I cannot believe this "coal corridor" is proposed for our green and sustainable city!!
A livable community down the chute!

I guess Metro is finally getting it through its thick skull:

The I-205 bike path doesn't work,

The MAX line to the Airport doesn't work,

Even C-Tran's express buses don't work.

Over 80% of our region's transport is on the roads, and that percentage has not moved much in decades. In fact most of the bicycling growth has come at the expense of transit usage - NOT people dumping their cars, but people dumping TriMet.

And, they're realizing that Clark County residents contribute $131 million in income tax revenue (in 2010) in addition to the economic benefit by providing an additional trained workforce and patronizing businesses to the south of the Columbia. That's far more economic benefit than all the movie producers, bicycle related businesses, environmental organizations, and other favored entities - combined.

Now that I-84 gets widened - how about a fourth lane on I-5 from SR 503 to Oregon 22, a third lane on 217 end to end, turn T.V. Highway into a highway and not a 25 MPH "main street", widen Powell to Boulevard standards, a third lane on 99W from I-5 to the Tualatin River...?

I guess Metro is finally getting it through its thick skull...

I'm not getting my hopes up.

I drive that stretch every morning.
SOLUTION: Raise the frickin speed limit to something other than crawl.
Too fast, too scary? Get off the freeway you double nickle latte slurpers!!!!!!!!

SOLUTION: Raise the frickin speed limit to something other than crawl.
Too fast, too scary? Get off the freeway you double nickle latte slurpers!!!!!!!!

A large part of the reason we have such absurdly low limits on freeways and rural highways is because of a certain retread governor and his ilk. It's all political and flies in the face of valid engineering practices.

I've actually been toying with the idea of a ballot initiative that would raise the statutory limits on Oregon's freeways and rural highways. The entire ORS can be modified by initiative, and the statutory speed limits just happen to be defined in ORS 810.180 and ORS 811.111. Thus, from a legal standpoint, it's perfectly viable, and the governor can't block it like he's done with countless bills of that nature.

Back on topic, it really is a pleasant surprise to see Metro on board with adding freeway capacity. It's one small step in the right direction.

Maybe someone has pointed out to bicycle Rex and his pals that similar size cities such as Sacramento and Las Vegas have four and five lane freeways; and have had them for almost a decade. Time to maybe improve Portland's 1960s-era freeways for a change.

Ah yes Dave A., Sacramento and Las Vegas. A few more freeways and we can aspire to those delightful wastelands of sprawl.

I'm always astonished at the cost of these expansions 6 million for widening one ramp? Yeesh. What does that break down to per foot?

Andrew S,
Have you taken a trip out to Happy Valley?
They keep opening up the UGB and we have same patterns of sprawl. . . and then the parallel extreme density! The boogeyman of sprawl has ruined our livable city, making it a sacrifice zone to live in. . . or is it just in some protected neighborhoods that have been saved? However, it looks like the tentacles of sacrifice are more far reaching these days, witness apartment bunkers plunked down in neighborhoods without parking!
As a reminder, we were told we would save our farmland! Why do I not see much of our former farmlands growing our food, instead food being brought in from other places (more expensive) and even China! Instead I see estates with McMansions and land growing urban street trees for the Smart Growth agenda.