Why I’m glad I don’t work downtown…
Is downtown even more of a zoo than normal, or what?
I don’t normally go downtown during M-F from 9-5 - but I’ve been at the Marriott for meetings since Monday.
I’d normally try and take mass transit - but have needed my car for client outings and/or kid retrieval purposes.
With all of the street construction and building construction and sudden lane closures and big-ass delivery trucks who need to stop in the middle of the road to unload their goods and clueless pedestrians and and and…well, it takes me 30 minutes or more of circling blocks to find a place to park (lots are full early, no less.) Several lights to go crosstown six blocks. Traffic’s snarled everywhere; pedestrians wander around willy-nilly, and people are less than pleasant as a result.
Sure, the out of towners are used to it (although they’re having great fun laughing at our non-working MetroFi.) But *I’m* not!
I’ll certainly be glad to get to my eastside office tomorrow, that’s for sure…
Related posts:
so you’re downtown? cocktails @ 5?
As you know, I am downtown daily and see the challenges. I don’t feel the challenges as I don’t drive but take MAX. I will only defend pedestrians on the busmall as I feel the signage and changes daily cause confusion. I have called Tri-Met and the contractor a few times because signs were incorrect or dangerous at busy intersections. With this much activity, they should be paying people to direct traffic and they are not.
A suggestion: park @ Lloyd and MAX from there. Park up of N. Mississippi/Interstated and MAX from there. Good luck.
Welcome to my world Betsy! Dealing with this every day since the begining makes it much easier. You just know you can’t get from point A to point B in a straight line. At all. It has been rather hazardous walking, making sure cars don’t just run through the temporary stop signs and such. But the C.O.A.T folks are really doing an admirable job of trying to direct everyone. People just need to pay attention to them.
You know, I gotta say, as I drove around the Eastside this weekend, it seems they are doing lots of tearing up over there also.
Yeah, I tell you, even staying completely legal, I appreciate my bike downtown more than anywhere else. I don’t have to park and I can get anywhere three times as fast as a car. Especially during rush hour…
And, yeah, it’s confusing as a pedestrian, too, sometimes the workers are directing pedestrian traffic, sometimes they just look like they are but are actually just standing there, etc. Confusing for everyone.
I completely gave up driving downtown as soon as the construction began. It’s either Max or bike for me. Both are very fast downtown.
I’ve never noticed any bad traffic due to the construction, but once I cross the Hawthorne bridge I go 3 blocks and pull into the parking lot paid for by my company… I know - totally spoiled :D
I live downtown, so I’m spoiled by the convenience of having everything in walking distance, and I tend to not notice road construction.
Last night, I was taking a bus over to SE, and that’s when it hit me how bad construction downtown is. I was watching cars cutting in front of busses as everyone was trying to quickly merge their way onto the Morrison bridge since the Burnside was shut down.
Nutty!
My husband and I have commuted together in our car from inner SE to downtown for the last 8 years.
1. It’s summer, and there are a lot of tourists, plus locals who take a day off to come downtown. Traffic is always up in summer, not just on the streets and sidewalks but in my favorite lunch places (darn it).
2. Of course construction has made all the traffic worse (partly by squeezing bus traffic onto streets that were already carrying heavy car traffic), and then the 3-week closure of the Burnside Bridge (started this week) rerouted all the cars that normally go over it to other bridges, causing more traffic on streets that are usually relatively quiet.
“Boo Hoo… I feel so inconvenienced because I can’t find parking… a need my car because… I’m so exclusive in my eastside office….”
Why not use park and ride? Or better, think about how unsustainable your lifestyle is and embrace a week of independence from your car! I walk, bike, bus, or max and would never think of driving into downtown everyday. Parking should be hard to find in a place of so much pedestrian activity. You should think less about yourself and more about how your driving adversely affects others.
Howdy Neighbor!