[jyl]

Freeway traffic in the Portland city and across the river to Vancouver is bad. But, not worse than other areas with bad traffic - LA, SF, Seattle, etc.

If you are a local, you know when to take surface streets, and for most routes you have that option. It's not like SF where there is only one way to drive from Oakland to SF. It takes an hour to drive from a parking garage in downtown SF to the onramp to the Bay Bridge at rush hour, that is about twelve blocks. Portland isn't like that.

In fact, many locals don't drive much at all. Light rail, bus, bike, soon bike share, Uber - if you are physically fit, you don't actually need to drive on a daily basis here. It's not as car-optional as Manhattan, but it's getting there.

The reason freeways are not being expanded is partly by choice, but partly because the city is dense enough that there isn't room for new or wider freeways. And the worst traffic is to/from Vancouver WA, which is a misery for Washingtonians commuting into Portland, but not really for Portlanders since there is very little reason to go to Vancouver if you don't live there. So Portland, and Oregon in general, is not particularly motivated to do anything about it. The cost of building a new bridge across the Columbia is stratospheric anyway. The last effort to do so was abandoned a few years ago. Washington didn't help things by refusing to extend the MAX light rail system to and through Vancouver. Oregon said, why should we spend hundreds of billions so Washingtonians can commute more easily while leaving their property tax dollars in Washington?

On a multi decade basis, I think the need for wider freeways will go away. Driverless cars will be wide-spread in 10 or 20 years. Without a human driver, the cost of a taxi ride will fall, a lot. The driverless cars will be small, since they only need to hold a couple of passengers. It will be standard to summon a driverless car, share it with another passenger going to a similar location (like UberPool today). With driverless cars providing the last-mile, it will be easy to use light rail for the longer trips. We'll probably own personal cars, but fewer per family, and they'll be used less - for vacations, long trips, hauling stuff. And at that point, it might make sense to simply rent one or use a car share service. That sounds good to me. Driving in the city is a chore, there is nothing pleasurable about it at all. And spending $40K every five years to buy a car for that chore is starting to look like a waste of money. Cars used to be status symbols and self expression, that will continue but 99% of cars out there are just for chore driving. In 2036 I expect to own only one car, and my Hyundai Porsche-Edition convertible will get driven maybe once a week. I might skip the car and simply have my fun on my electric Ducati mobility scooter.