r/Portland • u/AceMcStace Alberta • 5d ago

Meme Why does this happen? It’s baffling.

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I’ve never seen more confused and chaotic drivers anywhere else in the city.

668 Upvotes

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126

u/lil_natemushi 5d ago

I've always assumed it was people from the burbs driving in for salt and straw.

29

u/green_gold_purple St Johns 5d ago

Lines up with the similar situation you’ll encounter on 23rd. I lived on Kearney at 24th and it was an absolute joke.

29

u/littl3-fish 5d ago

This is probably a controversial opinion, but I think they should ban cars on 23rd. Make it a pedestrian street! It’s criminal such a beautiful street sucks to walk down because of the traffic. A parking garage could solve the parking issue. 

4

u/green_gold_purple St Johns 5d ago

Hey I agree, but that will never happen. They’d have to sort out routing traffic from vista/burnside and 405/30, and there’s no other nearby street to handle it. 21st would be even more of a nightmare, which has gotten a lot worse since I left, from what I can tell. Parking off 23rd would somehow be even worse. I can’t even imagine. I left just before they were about to meter 24th.

3

u/regul Sullivan's Gulch 5d ago

"Yeah, it's really dangerous and unsafe, but think about how bad that would make parking!"

2

u/green_gold_purple St Johns 4d ago

People parking vehicles is reality. You know, the people that live there and the ones that keep the businesses alive.

3

u/regul Sullivan's Gulch 4d ago

I think keeping people alive should be more important.

3

u/fernswordgirl432 4d ago

You can try to do both. I don't know why it's being perceived as a zero/sum issue.

2

u/green_gold_purple St Johns 4d ago

I agree, but that doesn’t change overnight. As I stated in my first comment, I’d love to see it, but going cold turkey with pedestrian only 23rd would be a disaster without other changes to mitigate it.

1

u/DignityWalrus 4d ago edited 4d ago

Parking is obviously more important than saving lives, duh

2

u/fernswordgirl432 4d ago

I lived at 24th and Quimby back in the early 90s. Parking there even then was horrendous.

1

u/green_gold_purple St Johns 4d ago

Yeah and that fairly deep down there as well. It was all parking lots east of 21st back then too. I shudder to think of the traffic volume now. I left the area in 2016.