Every major metropolitan area in the country has a light-rail inter-city transportation system. Portland and some of its neighboring cities have the beginnings of such a system with MAX, but it will never be complete, and we on the north side of the Columbia River will be locked into a perpetual traffic jam unless we join the system.
There’s more to it, of course, than light rail. The bridges across the Columbia are inadequate. Whether the Interstate 5 Bridge needs to be replaced or merely supplemented, and whether the interstate light rail would be part of the bridge system or would utilize separate tunnels, remains to be seen. Questions of that kind require intensive engineering and geologic studies, hopefully not by the same people who made such a mess of the proposed Columbia River Crossing.
A transportation system that involves bridges, improved roadways to serve those bridges, and possibly tunnels, costs money. No amount of fussing is going to change that basic fact. Tolls, increased taxes, and cooperation with both the U.S. government and the State of Oregon are all part of the equation. None of us are getting any younger, and traffic isn’t getting any lighter. It’s time we got serious and faced our responsibilities.
