Some Metro projects to think about while you stare at red taillights throughout your commute:
Trolley Trail: Southeast Arista Drive to Glen Echo Avenue
Funding category Bike/Trail
Total project cost $1,653,000
The 6-mile Trolley Trail is a multi-use path that follows an abandoned streetcar right of way between Milwaukie and Gladstone.
Only $275,000 per mile.
Eastside Streetcar: Northwest 10th/Lovejoy to OMSI
Funding category Transit
Total project cost $84,000,000
This project will fund preliminary engineering for extending the Portland Streetcar system by 3.4 miles from the Pearl District to the east side of the Portland central city.
Only $24,705,882.35 per mile.
MAX Multi-use path: Cleveland Avenue to Ruby Junction
Funding category Bike/Trail
Total project cost $1,383,000
The 2-mile, shared-use path runs parallel to the light-rail tracks.
Only $691,500 per mile.
Marine Drive Bike Lanes and Trail Gaps: Northeast 6th to 185th Avenue
Funding category Bike/Trail
Total project cost $1,840,000
Four segments of off-street trail adjacent to Marine Drive will be completed, making a continuous 9.1-mile off-street trail from Northeast 28th to Northeast 185th avenues. This project also will complete .9 miles of bike lane between Northeast Sixth and Northeast 28th avenues that are an on-street alternative to the Bridgeton portion of off-street Marine Drive Trail.
Only $184,000 per mile.
Springwater Trail: Sellwood Gap: Southeast 19th Avenue to Umatilla Street
Funding category Bike/Trail
Total project cost $1,815,000
This project completes a missing link in the existing multi-use path. This .9-mile section of path will run adjacent to the Oregon Pacific railroad tracks from Southeast Umatilla Street to 19th Avenue.
The full price tag is for less than one mile.
I think that you get my point. I was looking for a project were they are widening a freeway so I could do a cost comparison, I was hoping to show that it is cheaper to widen a road than build a "multi-use trail" but I can't seem to find a project like that on their Project Priorities page.
The ones that do talk about streets have descriptions like:
This project constructs bike lanes and sidewalks along the north and south sides of Southeast Jennifer Street between 106th and 122nd.
and
This project reconstructs the existing street to include sidewalks, turn lanes, landscaped medians and bike lanes.
Let me take a shot at liberal hysteria here: (read aloud in frantic voice that doesn't let you get in a word edgewise)
Metro is causing global warming!!! The stop and go traffic is polluting the planet and destroying the ozone!!! If the roads had the capacity to move cars at the posted speed limits we could reduce pollution and our dependence on foreign oil!!! NO BIKE PATHS FOR OIL!!! NO MAX TRAIN FOR OIL!!! Halliburton has brainwashed you into spending money on light-rail!!! Look at the cost overruns!!! Dick Cheney, Texas, Tom DeLay, aaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!
4 comments:
A cost comparison with traffic lanes would be interesting. Can you find the cost of the last lanes for cars built and use that for an approximate cost comparison?
Meanwhile, back down there in sunny Florida, in the Ft. Myers are on the Gulf coast, somebody's actually doing something creative about traffic congestion (and no, it doesn't involve bike lanes...)
http://snipurl.com/gyn1
The cost comparison will be looked into. It will be in a (near) future post.
As for pay for position traffic, we already pay for the roads with our gas taxes. The point is that they spend that money on "multi-use" paths instead of building new roads or widening existing roads.
We shouldn't have to pay for the same service twice.
>As for pay for position traffic, we already pay for the roads with our gas taxes. The point is that they spend that money on "multi-use" paths instead of building new roads or widening existing roads.<
Hey! They built the Vera Katz Esplanade! That didn't come out of your gas-tax money. It came out of...ummm your Federal tax money. (G)
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