Danger of congestion and tolling is diversion on local streets

When the Oregon Legislature passed HB2017 last year, the transportation package did not include any construction funding for Interstate 205 to resolve the 5.8-mile-long bottleneck. The transportation package did however include a mandate to initiate tolling of Interstate 5 and I-205. Now, as the discussion of tolling continues, the concerns of interstate traffic diverting onto local roads is heating up.

If I-5 and I-205 are tolled, how many motorists will use local roads to avoid paying tolls? Diversion is not a new phenomenon; as a result of growing congestion it is already occurring in the Portland-metro region.

Bottlenecks cause more congestion on major highways, which lead to accidents and in some cases fatalities. When there is a major backup on a highway, there are smart-phone applications that provide motorists shortcuts to avoid the traffic ahead, which leads to diversion on local roads. Traffic accidents happen for many reasons, and safety is a real concern for us all. Hence traffic congestion increases the risk of accidents, but also leads to traffic diversion onto local roads, putting our local communities at risk.

Read full article at Clackamas Review.