It appears that if a new I-5 bridge across the Columbia River is built and includes tolls as "planned", most drivers will just move over to the un-tolled I-205 bridge. Who'd ever have thought it?
Thus far, "planners" and other "professionals" have peed away some $170 million on a bridge design that won't receive a permit due to its impedance of maritime traffic and that most drivers suggest they'd avoid - and a Representative from Clark County has won a seat on the House Appropriations Committee. Neither Oregon nor Washington have committed funding for the project, and the House won't do so in the absence of such funding.
Clark County residents voted down light rail when given a chance to do so, and more recently, C-Tran voters nixed a sales tax increase to pay for light rail operations. It seems clear that they lack enthusiasm for bringing the Portland Crime Train into downtown Vancouver, yet insistence by "planners" and politicians upon requiring exactly that is one reason why the proposed design is too low to satisfy the U.S. Coast Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers. Well, that and the apparent fact that "planners" and local politicians are irretrievably stupid.
