Friday, February 10, 2006

My proposed ballot initiative

Whereas traffic sucks;

Wherears ODOT does nothing about it;

Therefore the people of Oregon shall fire all 5000 ODOT employees and replace them with 5000 random people from the 6:00pm commute.

Why wouldn't this pass? We know that the average state workers salary is higher than the average Oregonians salary so for most people this would actually be a raise. (and a healthy raise in benefits)

Then instead of ODOT managers who dream about urban utopias where people do everything on the MAX we would have people who would say: "How can we get people to and from where they want to go with the utmost efficiency?"

12 comments:

Robin said...

speaking of traffic... in Eugène, the 2008 Olympic track and field trials will be held here.

our freeways and roads are congested to the max in addition, there is no room for parking at the University of Oregon and these idiots are going to host the track and field trials here with an estimated 15-18,000 people per day expected.

Logistically... I think you're going to shut the town down.

Oh yes, let's not forget to mention the public safety who has been cutting its services as a threat to get more money is suddenly faced with a new problem. Not enough resources to handle the influx.

So I don't know if the roads in this particular case fall under ODOT jurisdiction, but I haven't heard anybody talk about it.

Anonymous said...

I would vote for that initiative.

Sincerely,

Hector Romero Rodriguez

Anonymous said...

When do we begin gathering signatures? We can walk along I-5 in Portland through the gridlock to collect signatures. What else do those people up there have to do?

-Andy

Anonymous said...

the problem is this is just too logical.

Anonymous said...

I would extend this to most any government agency, like a draft.

Every citizen gets tapped to do 2 years in a public service job, with the associated pay & bennies.

Can't be any worse than what we have now...

Anonymous said...

No city has ever paved its way out of a traffic problem and MAX is a lot more efficient/environmentally friendly than cars.

Anonymous said...

5000 ODOT employees you say?

Guess you haven't counted on how many folks they retain on a monthly basis and reward quite handsomely.

Anonymous said...

Robin, they have football games with more than 3 times that number several times a year. I know that's only on Saturday but it is worth the economic impact to make Eugene very busy for one weak to get the trials.

davidhamilton said...

Traffic -- NOW you have my attention! Is it really necessary for a minor accident on I-5 to take hours and hours to clean up, delaying many, many motorists for hours and hours? Skidmarks are scrupulously measured to the inch, while the time of thousands of motorists is regarded as worth less than nothing!

Anonymous said...

""""""So I don't know if the roads in this particular case fall under ODOT jurisdiction""""""""

ODOT was long ago taken over by the same mindless Metro/TriMet
agenda that posts this crap.
""""""No city has ever paved its way out of a traffic problem and MAX is a lot more efficient/environmentally friendly than cars. """""""""

Yes of course ODOT participates in road decisions in in Eugene.
Yes more paving helps,
and NO MAX is not efficient.
Quite the contrary. It is the least efficient, most expensive and serves the fewest.

Anonymous said...

Wait, did someone above say Max was efficient? HELLO! Have you not seen the numbers? Even at full capacity during every single minute of operation, it hardly makes a dent in commuting.

Not to mention, did you ever think about how the electricity for the Max is produced?

wake up!

Anonymous said...

Hello,

Note that the one that wrote "No city has ever paved its way out of a traffic problem and MAX is a lot more efficient/environmentally friendly than cars." posted as "anonymous".

On Slashdot, anonymous posts are said to be posted by "anonymous coward".

Yes, I realize mine is anonymous also. Soon to change.

--jason