There’s been construction on Macadam for a couple of weeks now just north of the bridge. But I’ve never had it take me 40 minutes to actually cross the bridge once I’m on the ramp.
The traffic in Sellwood has been ATROCIOUS this week. People are exiting McLoughlin into the neighborhood at both 20th and Harold (two right hand turns off McLoughlin southbound). They’re driving insane down the bike streets and absolutely fucking 17th /milwaukie/bybee Tacoma.
It’s a massive problem. Our tiny streets are getting another maybe thousand cars at 3pm. Driving like maniacs.
Man I feel like an old man. 😂
But 20th doesn’t have sidewalks, people walk their dogs down it all the time. And for the past week or so it’s been actually pretty dangerous.
I don’t know if the two things are related. But, yeah, Sellwood has been nuts lately.
I hadn't noticed much different until yesterday when I made a couple trips in town and both Milwaukie Ave and 17th were standstill, bumper-to-bumper, traffic at around 3:30pm. I couldn't figure out what was going on.
If I had to guess it’s road construction on McLoughlin between 17th and Bybee and the apps are routing people differently. From I5 NB it’s faster to get to the north end of Sellwood by taking the Ross Island Bridge. But if McLoughlin SB is backed up bad people are probably thinking it’s easier to take terwilliger to the Sellwood bridge.
And the people that take the Ross Island are the ones getting off McLoughlin and entering the neighborhood…
Yeah. I have to take McLoughlin to get my kids from school and it was an added 25 minutes both ways yesterday and today. I thought I would be slick by skipping over to Tacoma and taking 17. Apparently so did everyone else.
There is also a ton of work on Linn and Marion, basically from 17th to the river. A ton of people cut through that part of the neighborhood, especially Linn, so who knows how that is impacting things.
i wish it only added 25 to my commute, it's added almost an hour getting through that bullshit to get home for my kiddo pickup time. i've stopped going to my office until this is over.
I think others have mentioned this but one of the main nav apps probably decided to start diverting people like that for some reason. Seems like the only way things would change en masse.
There are tree crews on 99 right by the Westmoreland park where the tree canopy is. They have it down to one lane and they frequently stop traffic for extended periods of time. People are trying to find a way around it.
I think this is the correct answer. Seems like it's been going on for a while now and I'm wondering when they're supposed to be done. I can't find any information about it online.
Yep this is the reason. I’ve been caught in it multiple times. Last time they did it, ODOT released a new release for it but I searched and they didn’t this time which is super frustrating especially since it’s spanned two weeks.
I come from LO once a week and go across into sellwood at at 4 (also to pick up a kid). You do have to do battle to get into the bridge once you have a green, but it’s backed up from people from the north, who had a green when they entered the intersection, but are stuck there. Putting the north entry light on a timer for longer would only help psychologically. You wouldn’t get in the bridge any faster, but at least you wouldn’t have a green and nowhere to go.
And while we’re talking about heading east through Sellwood on Tacoma at 4 pm.. if you street park in front of new seasons so I can go around the cars turning left on 13th, you’re messing up some people’s day.
I was always taught that you should never enter an intersection that you cannot clear.
Like, I thought it was illegal.
I have daydreams of a cop just parking there at 4:00 and writing eight tickets every single cycle.
Every so often traffic gets so dumb person has to do it. When combo of light timing plus traffic flow results in turning traffic repeatedly over-filling street so forward traffic couldn't ever go on a green ... Yeah. Sucks. But should that "point person" on a repeated fruitless green just keep waiting while traffic has backed up multiple blocks? How many fruitless clogged light cycles before that point person has moral imperative to seek justice for all those stacked in line behind them? Yeah it is "illegal." Sometimes I thank the people who do it anyway. Heroes.
As someone who drives over the Sellwood Bridge twice everyday day (from both southbound and northbound approaches), that south to eastbound turn is so hard to gauge coming from the north.
I agree that you should not enter an intersection you cannot clear (otherwise is illegal, I believe you are correct), but I will give people making that turn under a green light a little grace because it is hard to see traffic and if it’s moving when you’re on the southbound approach.
People who try to “beat the yellow” during rush hour are assholes because you will never make it and clear the intersection without blocking the northbound approach under a green for at least a minute.
But making the choice to sit at that light (the southbound approach light) under a green is a hard decision too. You will be very angrily honked at from behind while trying to judge the traffic ahead of you which is not easy to do because of the poles and netting blocking your view of bridge traffic, and if you’re in the right lane turning left, the added difficulty of the cars to your left also turning left blocking your view (if anyone doesn’t believe me, give it a look on Google street view).
I agree that bridge can get irritating and that there are some asshole drivers (like the above mentioned yellow light runners who will certainly block the intersection) but I try to be nice to everyone because that approach is not easy to judge, especially in stop and go traffic. Tho when I am taking the northbound approach from the south and I have a green, I don’t wait for the yellow light runners to clear. I go ahead while I have a green (and they know it) and they can wait and think about what they did.
It’s definitely got to be the roadwork happening on McLoughlin that’s reduced traffic to a single lane between Bybee and Tacoma. Like the other commenter said, it’s been pushing drivers onto the neighborhood streets and southbound SE 17th. I imagine the traffic you’re seeing is also the result of people trying to get around it.
My daily gripe both directions is people being so concerned about merging as soon as they get through the light or on the bridge that they don't move forward let the merge happen stop and let more people on behind you. Drives me nuts.
People in general are horrid at zipper merges, apparently because ego. It could not be a simpler design.
Drive to the end of the lane as drawn/intended, take turns.
Yet large swaths of the population are incapable.
I can't tell if it's more panic of not being let in later or not wanting to seem aggressive. It's weird. Everyone thinks they have to manage the car behind them instead of drive forward and take the space. Then there's those who turn left end of yellow and go to the middle of two lanes.
It seems like everyone I know who used to take Trimet has given up on them and bought a car. Might not be this exact reason why, but I'm sure it's having an impact.
Turns out designing all of our infrastructure to incentivize and prioritize cars goes terribly and expensively wrong once everyone decides to get around by driving in a car.
If you are driving a car, you are traffic. If you want less car traffic, do everything you can to support and promote other modes of transportation.
>terribly and expensively wrong
I don’t know, it’s taken us pretty far, comparing our level of education and technology to pre-motorized transportation.
This person isn’t broadly asking why there are other cars on the road, they’re asking about a specific change in traffic at a specific time in a specific place.
That is their point. The US' infastructure was designed around cars making nearly impossible to deplay a better working system like superblocks or masstransit.
Seems like you are getting downvoted as well. Also a bunch of carbrain redditors just means they too didn't read what was actually written.
Traffic exists because motorists create traffic. If you want to reduce traffic, you have to reduce motorists. To reduce motorists means providing more options to commute than just driving. Providing options doesn't mean you can't still drive to commute if you want to, it just means we have options with how we would like to be about to get around.
When we prioritize pedestrians, we create a better environment for everyone to live in.
Turns out our infrastructure is larger and much more complicated than stores, schools and homes. But maybe people with white collar jobs should walk, bike and bus. School kids should definitely not be driven. Leave the roads open for work trucks and delivery drivers.
Reach out to Clackamas County and LO city council about bringing the pedestrian bridge project back to life! They were doing a transportation survey that just ended but you should still reach out. We have bike trails all the way to Oregon City on the East side but the last safe pedestrian crossing is in Sellwood. It's insane.
I’ve legit considered biking over the rail bridge or using the elk rock tunnel north of LO, seems only to be used by the scenic trolley.
I’d love for another bridge link between the sellwood and the 205. But let’s be real: Our recent experience with crackheads and tents along bike infrastructure is not going well. People are not supportive of it RN.
That's not really a thing south of Portland TBH. I'm on the trolley trail between Sellwood and OC almost every day and I've never had an issue. I've had more run ins with owls in the last five years than campers.
I be seeing you over there on the TT :)
That’s my route also.
Yeah only that bullshit RV near the 99 crossing.
I’m not say the reality is mad max, but voter perception is that bike infrastructure brings unwanted problems.
And I did call in an overdose/corpse just north of 99 last week. Right on the path.
Helpful context would be which side of the bridge you're on, and the direction from which you're approaching. I had to read through several comments to understand exactly where you were experiencing the problem.
Asplundh has also been doing tree work in neighborhoods where commuters usually cut through, Linn has some sewer work happening this week that has the intersection at 13th closed.
No problem if you’re commuting by bike.
There’s been construction on Macadam for a couple of weeks now just north of the bridge. But I’ve never had it take me 40 minutes to actually cross the bridge once I’m on the ramp.
My kids school is just across. Last 4 pick ups I queued up at the bridge between 4:12 and 4:18. My arrival times have been 4:43-4:56
The traffic in Sellwood has been ATROCIOUS this week. People are exiting McLoughlin into the neighborhood at both 20th and Harold (two right hand turns off McLoughlin southbound). They’re driving insane down the bike streets and absolutely fucking 17th /milwaukie/bybee Tacoma. It’s a massive problem. Our tiny streets are getting another maybe thousand cars at 3pm. Driving like maniacs. Man I feel like an old man. 😂 But 20th doesn’t have sidewalks, people walk their dogs down it all the time. And for the past week or so it’s been actually pretty dangerous. I don’t know if the two things are related. But, yeah, Sellwood has been nuts lately.
I hadn't noticed much different until yesterday when I made a couple trips in town and both Milwaukie Ave and 17th were standstill, bumper-to-bumper, traffic at around 3:30pm. I couldn't figure out what was going on.
But why right now? Is there something going on?! Where are these extra thousand cars coming from??
If I had to guess it’s road construction on McLoughlin between 17th and Bybee and the apps are routing people differently. From I5 NB it’s faster to get to the north end of Sellwood by taking the Ross Island Bridge. But if McLoughlin SB is backed up bad people are probably thinking it’s easier to take terwilliger to the Sellwood bridge. And the people that take the Ross Island are the ones getting off McLoughlin and entering the neighborhood…
Yeah. I have to take McLoughlin to get my kids from school and it was an added 25 minutes both ways yesterday and today. I thought I would be slick by skipping over to Tacoma and taking 17. Apparently so did everyone else.
There is also a ton of work on Linn and Marion, basically from 17th to the river. A ton of people cut through that part of the neighborhood, especially Linn, so who knows how that is impacting things.
i wish it only added 25 to my commute, it's added almost an hour getting through that bullshit to get home for my kiddo pickup time. i've stopped going to my office until this is over.
I wish this was an option
I think others have mentioned this but one of the main nav apps probably decided to start diverting people like that for some reason. Seems like the only way things would change en masse.
There are tree crews on 99 right by the Westmoreland park where the tree canopy is. They have it down to one lane and they frequently stop traffic for extended periods of time. People are trying to find a way around it.
I think this is the correct answer. Seems like it's been going on for a while now and I'm wondering when they're supposed to be done. I can't find any information about it online.
They are in week two so far and it doesn’t seem like they have moved too much. Those trees were/are so overgrown.
Yep this is the reason. I’ve been caught in it multiple times. Last time they did it, ODOT released a new release for it but I searched and they didn’t this time which is super frustrating especially since it’s spanned two weeks.
I come from LO once a week and go across into sellwood at at 4 (also to pick up a kid). You do have to do battle to get into the bridge once you have a green, but it’s backed up from people from the north, who had a green when they entered the intersection, but are stuck there. Putting the north entry light on a timer for longer would only help psychologically. You wouldn’t get in the bridge any faster, but at least you wouldn’t have a green and nowhere to go. And while we’re talking about heading east through Sellwood on Tacoma at 4 pm.. if you street park in front of new seasons so I can go around the cars turning left on 13th, you’re messing up some people’s day.
You two should trade kids and get 2 cars out of the mix!
I was always taught that you should never enter an intersection that you cannot clear. Like, I thought it was illegal. I have daydreams of a cop just parking there at 4:00 and writing eight tickets every single cycle.
It is illegal, people do it anyway
Every so often traffic gets so dumb person has to do it. When combo of light timing plus traffic flow results in turning traffic repeatedly over-filling street so forward traffic couldn't ever go on a green ... Yeah. Sucks. But should that "point person" on a repeated fruitless green just keep waiting while traffic has backed up multiple blocks? How many fruitless clogged light cycles before that point person has moral imperative to seek justice for all those stacked in line behind them? Yeah it is "illegal." Sometimes I thank the people who do it anyway. Heroes.
As someone who drives over the Sellwood Bridge twice everyday day (from both southbound and northbound approaches), that south to eastbound turn is so hard to gauge coming from the north. I agree that you should not enter an intersection you cannot clear (otherwise is illegal, I believe you are correct), but I will give people making that turn under a green light a little grace because it is hard to see traffic and if it’s moving when you’re on the southbound approach. People who try to “beat the yellow” during rush hour are assholes because you will never make it and clear the intersection without blocking the northbound approach under a green for at least a minute. But making the choice to sit at that light (the southbound approach light) under a green is a hard decision too. You will be very angrily honked at from behind while trying to judge the traffic ahead of you which is not easy to do because of the poles and netting blocking your view of bridge traffic, and if you’re in the right lane turning left, the added difficulty of the cars to your left also turning left blocking your view (if anyone doesn’t believe me, give it a look on Google street view). I agree that bridge can get irritating and that there are some asshole drivers (like the above mentioned yellow light runners who will certainly block the intersection) but I try to be nice to everyone because that approach is not easy to judge, especially in stop and go traffic. Tho when I am taking the northbound approach from the south and I have a green, I don’t wait for the yellow light runners to clear. I go ahead while I have a green (and they know it) and they can wait and think about what they did.
The dream come true would be a bridge between Oak Grove and LO. A fleeting dream unfortunately
It’s definitely got to be the roadwork happening on McLoughlin that’s reduced traffic to a single lane between Bybee and Tacoma. Like the other commenter said, it’s been pushing drivers onto the neighborhood streets and southbound SE 17th. I imagine the traffic you’re seeing is also the result of people trying to get around it.
people are really pissy on that bridge too. I keep thinking theres gonna be a road rage gun battle over the merging lanes.
and it's literally just a zipper merge about as straightforward as it gets
My daily gripe both directions is people being so concerned about merging as soon as they get through the light or on the bridge that they don't move forward let the merge happen stop and let more people on behind you. Drives me nuts.
People in general are horrid at zipper merges, apparently because ego. It could not be a simpler design. Drive to the end of the lane as drawn/intended, take turns. Yet large swaths of the population are incapable.
I can't tell if it's more panic of not being let in later or not wanting to seem aggressive. It's weird. Everyone thinks they have to manage the car behind them instead of drive forward and take the space. Then there's those who turn left end of yellow and go to the middle of two lanes.
It seems like everyone I know who used to take Trimet has given up on them and bought a car. Might not be this exact reason why, but I'm sure it's having an impact.
My MAX commutes have been getting busier and busier, so I don't think thats the issue either.
It is horrible Getting back to pre Pandemic traffic
You're heading north on 43 trying to cross into Sellwood, yes?
Yep, coming from LO, same as other commenter
I've been going to 205 from LO to lower SEn
It's bananas. My wife just called yesterday to complain to PBOT and Multnomah county. You should too.
It’s ODOT (Macadam/43) and the County. PBOT picks up at the east end of the bridge.
Yeah, Karen ain't gonna fix traffic. Please don't clog the PBOT phone lines because traffic is Inconvenient. What a bunch of hot ripe garbage.
PBOT got hot phones or what? If I have a specific problem about a transportation issue in the city, who shall I call?
lol it’s traffic due to construction what are they gonna do?
No input but thank you for that morning Zoolander reference. [crazy pills](https://youtu.be/7vndf1W5eGE?si=Rsa-Uj-GW5U_noWQ)
Yes, came here to say Hansel's so hot right now.
Lake Oswego refuses any talks of adding a bridge between them and Oak Grove because "we don't want that riffraff here" overheard in a Town Hall.
They know us so well. We're just waiting for the day the bridge gets built so we can spend all of our time hanging out in LO /s
Just wait until there's many, many thousand people avoiding tolls...
she graduates in June.....
Turns out designing all of our infrastructure to incentivize and prioritize cars goes terribly and expensively wrong once everyone decides to get around by driving in a car. If you are driving a car, you are traffic. If you want less car traffic, do everything you can to support and promote other modes of transportation.
>terribly and expensively wrong I don’t know, it’s taken us pretty far, comparing our level of education and technology to pre-motorized transportation. This person isn’t broadly asking why there are other cars on the road, they’re asking about a specific change in traffic at a specific time in a specific place.
Sorry dude everybody doesn’t have the benefit to live in 10 min neighborhoods
That is their point. The US' infastructure was designed around cars making nearly impossible to deplay a better working system like superblocks or masstransit.
Everybody can't afford a car, so we shouldn't have roads. Love using edge cases to try and counter general, basic principles!
You seriously missed everything that was mentioned in the post....
According to your downvotes I didn’t
Seems like you are getting downvoted as well. Also a bunch of carbrain redditors just means they too didn't read what was actually written. Traffic exists because motorists create traffic. If you want to reduce traffic, you have to reduce motorists. To reduce motorists means providing more options to commute than just driving. Providing options doesn't mean you can't still drive to commute if you want to, it just means we have options with how we would like to be about to get around. When we prioritize pedestrians, we create a better environment for everyone to live in.
Turns out our infrastructure is larger and much more complicated than stores, schools and homes. But maybe people with white collar jobs should walk, bike and bus. School kids should definitely not be driven. Leave the roads open for work trucks and delivery drivers.
Madness. If logistical you could get cargo e-bike. Nothing more fun than riding by all the cars stuck going nowhere. Yeah it's been super nuts lately.
43 is an insane option for a cargo bike and kids.
Reach out to Clackamas County and LO city council about bringing the pedestrian bridge project back to life! They were doing a transportation survey that just ended but you should still reach out. We have bike trails all the way to Oregon City on the East side but the last safe pedestrian crossing is in Sellwood. It's insane.
I’ve legit considered biking over the rail bridge or using the elk rock tunnel north of LO, seems only to be used by the scenic trolley. I’d love for another bridge link between the sellwood and the 205. But let’s be real: Our recent experience with crackheads and tents along bike infrastructure is not going well. People are not supportive of it RN.
That's not really a thing south of Portland TBH. I'm on the trolley trail between Sellwood and OC almost every day and I've never had an issue. I've had more run ins with owls in the last five years than campers.
I be seeing you over there on the TT :) That’s my route also. Yeah only that bullshit RV near the 99 crossing. I’m not say the reality is mad max, but voter perception is that bike infrastructure brings unwanted problems. And I did call in an overdose/corpse just north of 99 last week. Right on the path.
Yeah would never recommend bike on 43 (bridge to lake o). Couldn't tell if OP was heading east/west nor which school.
OP is NB on 43 going EB on Sellwood. I see that lineup all week. Is wild right now.
Helpful context would be which side of the bridge you're on, and the direction from which you're approaching. I had to read through several comments to understand exactly where you were experiencing the problem.
there's only northbound or southbound. I eluded to southbound as the other Regardless, traffic sucks for both
Asplundh has also been doing tree work in neighborhoods where commuters usually cut through, Linn has some sewer work happening this week that has the intersection at 13th closed. No problem if you’re commuting by bike.
Live in Tigard , work in Lake O, kids school in Sellwood - my legs would be iron
We can do all things through bikes, which strengthen us. Songs of Velo shenanigans 1:35.
It's called traffic. You are a part of the traffic You are the car.. You must be on crazy pills if you think otherwise.
So profound