- What do you feel the
major advantage of the 3rd Bridge across the Willamette would be?
While there are many
advantages, the major one is that our downtown traffic grid will be greatly
relieved when we have more options for all modes of travel (vehicle, freight,
transit, bike, walking, etc). With 36% of the traffic counts being
through-traffic, the downtown traffic grid bears the burden for all east-west
traffic, and tying up north-south movements as a result. Another river crossing
keeps downtown viable, improves mobility and safety for Salem and Willamette
Valley communities, lowers costs and emissions from congestion, and will better
meet our needs related to future growth in Salem.
- What do you say when
others suggest that traffic reduction means that a 3rd Bridge (and/or 4D) is
"overkill" for a problem that occurs just a few hours a day, (and is
decreasing?)
This problem is not
diminishing nor will it go away. We’ve
done all that we can to address the bottlenecks in traffic at both ends of the
bridges by completing the projects listed in the 1998 Bridgehead Engineering
Study. However congestion will continue to increase due to historical 2-3% and
the likelihood of new developments in West Salem and Polk County. The average
daily traffic count (not just the morning and evening commute periods) on the
two existing bridges is still higher than the traffic count on I-5 at the
Market Street ramp. The decrease in
average daily traffic during this period of recession and high fuel prices is
temporary. The long-term trend of
increasing need will prevail, and even with aggressive multi-modal projects,
traffic counts (and population) will still increase by 80% in the next 20
years. We need solutions to traffic all day long, not just peak traffic
periods, and for all travelers (local, regional, through). Peak traffic periods are not just 7 – 8 am or
4:30 – 5:30 pm. They are now 6:30 – 9am
and 3:30 – 6:30 pm. Recently, I spent
many peak traffic periods holding campaign signs on the bridges – the peak
periods are longer and moving much more traffic than before: traffic isn’t
going to get better without us taking action.
- What are the chief
facts or arguments that you feel opponents to a 3rd Bridge (and/or 4D) ignore,
or simply don't understand?
The Draft Salem River
Crossing Environmental Impact Statement (D-EIS) already accounts for aggressive
results in improving use of transit, pedestrian, bike, and other Traffic Demand
Management (TDM) as avoidance alternatives to driving. Our Alternative Modes Study shows us that
there a variety of solutions we need to put in place to address current
congestion, mobility, safety, and to lower costs of another bridge. Some of the comments we’ve received to-date
tend to ignore how we’ve already accounted for maximizing transit, pedestrian,
and biking in the projections for future traffic flows, as well as not
considering that we will have increasing needs for mobility for employment and
housing related to growth.
- We notice the Chamber
of Commerce particularly highlighted your leadership in the 3rd Bridge issue in
their November letter to the City Council. We'd like to know how you became
interested in Salem having a third bridge, and when your interest began?
The problems of
congestion, safety, seismic stability, mobility, and hampered travel existed
long before I took office in 2003. Prior
to that, City of Salem leaders, along with leaders from Cherriots, City of
Keizer, and Marion and Polk counties had looked at 15 potential crossing sites
from Wheatland Ferry south of Independence for several years. In working with Congresswoman Hooley’s office
to obtain federal funds for the D-EIS in 2005, the need for a 3rd
Bridge really came to light during the June 2005 incident involving the
absolute freeze on all traffic for 4- 6 hours, including movement emergency
service vehicles. While the City of
Salem and ODOT have better traffic incident management in place now, the
striking fact of how we must have multiple crossings – and not have them in
downtown Salem. Also, concerns about
seismic stability of the existing bridges demands that we have alternatives in
place to minimize restoration of public services and normal activities. While it is difficult to quantify the
economic impact caused by only having the downtown bridges, we know that the
difficulties in getting agricultural products through downtown Salem to and
from I-5 are an economic barrier and create higher transportation costs. Citizen
concerns about being cut-off and being stuck on the bridges still run high on
both sides of the Willamette River.
