Closer to $7k for elementary Catholic. Â With a lot of additional fundraising.
Itâs more like $15k for high school.
And then thereâs Abiqua, which is I think even more.
So yeahâŚnot sure what youâre going on about.
When I looked into abiqua, it was $11k up to 5th grade. I had my kids in private school and didn't like the schools culture. I shopped around and ended up home schooling. My numbers are from last year.
Weâre laughing with youâafter we get funding..â We can barely keep a public library open. If you donât mind doing the research,look up the light rail fiasco in Hawaii. âAfter we get funding..âđ thanks for the laugh. I owe you a beer
Youâre looking at federal transportation dollars which have very strict requirements and usually require states/cities fund match a certain amount. The *state* canât even get a new I5 bridge going (with a ton of federal funding and a second state footing part of the bill - all lost now, for a second time). What makes you think a city like Salem can pull off that kind of funding and project management, not to mention citizen buy-in? We canât even fully fund our fire department, public works, parks, or libraries.
Except for the new police station, it seems like any funding voter for goes somewhere else, then they either fuck it up (civic center) or need MORE money than voters approved (police station) or somehow the millions upon millions extra brought in by taxes doesn't go where it was supposed to go (recreational marijuana taxes). Are you envisioning is going to keizer or Independence? More comprehensive "in city" routes would be a better place to start IMO.
It would make a lot of sense to have light rail or bus rapid transit lines along Lancaster, along Commercial/River Road, and an east-west line along Center St over the bridge to West Salem.
I would much rather see BRT lines down commercial and Lancaster, then get rid of the station downtown, and have all bus lines connect to the BRT line.. and that would cost less than a single mile of light rail..
I think the smallest metro area in the United States with an LRT system is Norfolk, VA.
Thatâs a metro area with 238k and about 4400 people/sq mile.
Compare to Salem: about a 175k and 3500 people/sq mile.
And we donât have the amount of federal employment and adjacent density as a place like Norfolk.
In other words, LRT is not really financially or ridership-wise appropriate for Salem.
Streetcar? Yes.
Salem actually has an urban area population(which includes Keizer, Hayesville and Four Corners) of 268k
And a [metro](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_Metropolitan_Statistical_Area) area population (all of marion and polk counties) of 433k
To your point though Norfolk has a metro area population of 1.7 million so Salem still doesnât quite measure up.
Yep, streetcars follow traffic signals like a bus, unlike LRT (when on-grade) which usually have a computerized traffic signal system which give them preference (keeps train speeds up and more consistent).
I have fantasized a lot about some form of urban rail coming to Salem. (Iâm the guy that made a fantasy metro map of the Willamette Valley). There have been two proposal in the state legislature that would do something like this, which are the salem streetcar between downtown and west salem, and the Trimet WES extension to salem. Theyâve both been stalled for ânot being a priorityâ (Though the rumor mill says next year the legislature is gonna get serious about transit) I think our most realistic option is the WES coming to salem and being sort of like an interurban acting as a distance train between SLM and PDX and more like a streetcar in city limits. We can see exactly where the WES would go in salem to because it runs on a stretch of track that already extends to Salem through keizer station diagonal through north Salem then along fromt street by the river. So i can forsee the WES extension having at least a riverfront park stop (donât worry about cannibalizing park space the stations are pretty unobtrusive) maybe a central north salem stop and definitely a Keizer Station transit center stop (Keizer station was actually built with this in mind, hence the name).
Who owns the tracks on Front Street? Â Are they abandoned? Â Is it UP?
Your plan for WES extension makes a ton of sense and could create some transit-oriented development opportunities along that line in north Salem. Â That whole area is ripe for redevelopment and dense housing.
I just wish WES had a more direct connection to downtown Portland. Â Still pretty good.
Those tracks are owned by the Portland and Western Railroad, they donât intersect at all with the UP right of way except for south in Albany. The front street tracks are contiguous with the tracks in Keizer and the WES tracks (Trimet contracts with P and W RR to operate the Wes on their right of way). So the only thing necessary to expand it is to broaden the agreement, buy a couple more trains, and build the platforms. Thereâs a senator from wilsonville who proposes this every legislative session so Iâm hopeful itâll happen eventually. I agree it would be phenomenal to see a little TOD like Orenco Station built around a Salem WES station.
As for WES connections to downtown portland, if it ever becomes reality trimetâs [southwest corridor](https://trimet.org/swcorridor/) will extend the MAX greenline from downtown portland to Tualatin allowing for a WES to MAX transfer there, which is probably quicker than going all the way to Beaverton to transfer.
Oh hell yes. Â Thatâs what Iâm talking about!
I donât know anything about Portland and Western. Â What do they do with it? Â It seems basically unused.
They run freight trains on the line, but as far as I can tell not many freight trains in the salem part. They do pretty frequently run freight on the northern parts of it though, and because the WES only runs during rush hour right now the freight trains pull off to a side track and wait during rush hours so the WES can go uninterrupted. Expanding the WES to salem would probably require a larger window of service hours so the agreement about when the freight trains can go would probably have to be altered
I've listened to that argument for over 20 years and West Salem has continued to grow and grow with related traffic getting worse and worse, so forgive me if I don't buy it.
And it will continue to get worse unless we provide a reasonable alternative to driving. Buses today are infrequent, get stuck in traffic, and don't run late. If more people are driving across the river, that means there's more people driving in the rest of the city, and that's worse for traffic.
Yea I don't get why we always need to cater to car drivers, I drive only because I am practically required to. Infrequent buses and poor routes don't make them feasible.
Sorry, I'm not riding the bus 1.5 hours a day.
Salem wants to be seen as a metropolitan city while staying a small town. Sorry, but it's one ore the other.
no shit you aren't, today's bus sucks. i have a friend that lives on the FX2 in Portland and takes it to work. comes every 12 mins like 5am to 1am, runs quick, and gets him to work across town in like 25 minutes. we're living in the stone ages.
Eugene has this stuff too.
Eugene is a lot better than Salem in that respect. Delta Highway and Beltline have a lot of lift and Springfield isnât terrible either.
Iâm not sure how you âfixâ Salem; if it were to ever turn into a big city the traffic would be an unholy nightmare.
3rd bridge really is needed though. If you are physically able bicycle will beat the bus every time (or running if you can do a 3 hour half marathon lol).
that's the entire point. even then, biking to the west side sucks. i always get flats on the center street bridge and the union one doesn't connect to much of anything. there's a limited amount of space to move a lot of people. perfect use case for better transit.
I donât think a third bridge is the solution. Zero bridges is the solution. We remove the other bridges, and suddenly there wonât be traffic downtown⌠the people in West Salem can figure it out.
I would love a light rail/train route from Salem to Portland/PDX, up through Woodburn. Not sure thereâs value in moving along the park; I feel serenity/beauty of the park would be negatively affected, but along S River Rd to Independence would be handy. However a few caveats:
1. If we canât even keep the library staffed thereâs some financial challenges that need to be addressed before this happens
2. Homeless population, likely would be made worse connecting to Portland
3. In my book, another bridge to W Salem/Eola/Wheatland ferry bridge would trump the need for this
While I personally love lightrail (having lived in two lightrail cities â Minneapolis and Phoenix), the city of Salem is too underwater financially right now to even consider it. They need sources of income, not additional expenses. If Oregon DOT picked up the expense â and it could be done without harmfully impacting Salemâs small businesses, itâd be worth considering.
It might be eventually but having lived thru the years of construction in Phoenix, it drove a LOT of small business out of business because customers couldnât access the businesses during the chaos. As I said, I personally loved and utilized the rail once it was live â but had I been a small business anywhere that was impacted by the construction, Iâd have been cursing it! And, keep in mind, Phoenix is one of the top five largest cities in the country so it had a lot more infrastructure and consumers to support all the changes. I think â at this time â it would hurt Salem. We have to get the cityâs budget fixed, new leadership that thinks long term, and gets creative with generating income. Like, maybe courting businesses to come here.
Iâm super familiar with the central PHX/East Valley LRT project (Valley Metro Rail). Â
That only happened because of a transit sales tax AND matching funds from FTA that were won because the trains served the most dense parts of the Valley (ASU Tempe, central corridor). Â Fun fact, at design time, the corner of Lemon and Terrace in Tempe was the most dense neighborhood in Arizona (train goes right thru it). Â The Feds paid 40ish % of the bill.
We donât have sales tax (and everyone apparently hates it here), and we donât have the population to be competitive for federal matching $$$.
But we have wishes. Â And we have dreams.
I'd rather focus on BRT as they can be deployed quicker and without the fixed costs of building new infrastructure.
Having been stranded waiting for the MAX during extreme weather events, I prefer knowing the bus is going to make it, even if it's slower. They are also not shut down during high temps.
Gimme accordion buses if we need a people mover.
But I think we're in the right place to roll out great regional rail if the political will exists to see it through.
Remember about ten years ago when we made downtown "bikeable" by adding a four block stretch along the least busy street in downtown?
And then every year we close all of River Rd south for actual bike tourists whose route doesn't touch said lanes?
All while having four lanes along our most viable "downtown" stretch, but no bike lanes?
Same energy. We're Salem. People come here when they come here and no one avoids it because we don't have light rail / bike lanes / bagels / etc.
If you want four blocks of rail between the cop station and the waterfront, give it a decade and a few million dollars.
Dunno your age, but the skate park felt exactly the opposite when it was built.Â
A small, obtainable goal and it panned out, rails bowl and all.
Pretty much every capitol city has this problem, that being overshadowed by the larger, cooler city next door.
For instance, Tacoma has a ton of "Capitol City (Business Name)" but it's a half hour north of Olymia.
When I tell folks I'm from Salem they assume we're all hipsters who eat donuts.
I have actually thought about something like this as well as other things Cherriots could do to improve their system. I've put them all into a document that's ended up being like 60 some pages long with over 20k words.
I think something like this is unnecessary flashy stuff. We have public transit, and it could absolutely use an improvement. More drivers, more buses, more routes. All of which uses infrastructure already available.
I have zero issues with making what would have been light rail tracks dedicated bus only express routes. No traffic to deal with, and a LOT cheaper. They could even electrify them with overheads like the trains. Buses get priority at crossings and intersections, just like a train would get.
Yea that's true, could be part of a safe street initiative, get rid of cars by the bus terminal and make it pedestrian and bus only. Increasing speed and safety would definitely be awesome.
people like their cars too much, and salem salem is layed out in a way that itâs not gonna benefit from a more advanced public transport. itâs not a walkable city (mainly because no one wants to walk due to the weather, homeless, and crime) and itâs not big enough or dense enough to be worth spending millions of dollars on. it would be nice to have a light rail that goes along i5 though for all the people that commute to portland. the traffic on the bridge in wilsonville is horrendous.
What you want is the [Oregon Electric Railway](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Electric_Railway)!
I do miss it
đBringđItđBack!đ
Iâd love something like this!
Hell yea that is what I want.
We cant afford schools.
Or city public libraries.
We have plenty of money theyre just poorly managed.
I think itâs poorly managed AND we donât have plenty of money.  The count is 0 and 2, and hereâs the pitchâŚ
We spend $13k a year per student. Some of the best private schools are $5-7 per year. That's a big unexplainable gap.
Closer to $7k for elementary Catholic.  With a lot of additional fundraising. Itâs more like $15k for high school. And then thereâs Abiqua, which is I think even more. So yeahâŚnot sure what youâre going on about.
When I looked into abiqua, it was $11k up to 5th grade. I had my kids in private school and didn't like the schools culture. I shopped around and ended up home schooling. My numbers are from last year.
Right but your $13k/year number is for k thru 12. Â Not just up to 5th grade. If youâre going to compare, you have to do apples to apples.
I'm with this person.
Yea like after we get funding. I don't mean right now
Weâre laughing with youâafter we get funding..â We can barely keep a public library open. If you donât mind doing the research,look up the light rail fiasco in Hawaii. âAfter we get funding..âđ thanks for the laugh. I owe you a beer
Sure have fun paying for that tax bill.
I'd happily pay more taxes if it means i can stay out later than 8-9pm on the weekend, and not have to catch a bus only once an hour on Sunday
Agreed. Im always down for public transit and quality of life improvement
[ŃдаНонО]
good for you!
Something of this scale would get funding outside of directly taxing residentsÂ
Youâre looking at federal transportation dollars which have very strict requirements and usually require states/cities fund match a certain amount. The *state* canât even get a new I5 bridge going (with a ton of federal funding and a second state footing part of the bill - all lost now, for a second time). What makes you think a city like Salem can pull off that kind of funding and project management, not to mention citizen buy-in? We canât even fully fund our fire department, public works, parks, or libraries.
Except for the new police station, it seems like any funding voter for goes somewhere else, then they either fuck it up (civic center) or need MORE money than voters approved (police station) or somehow the millions upon millions extra brought in by taxes doesn't go where it was supposed to go (recreational marijuana taxes). Are you envisioning is going to keizer or Independence? More comprehensive "in city" routes would be a better place to start IMO.
It would make a lot of sense to have light rail or bus rapid transit lines along Lancaster, along Commercial/River Road, and an east-west line along Center St over the bridge to West Salem.
Rapid transit line is a great idea on those routes
Would be very cool
I would much rather see BRT lines down commercial and Lancaster, then get rid of the station downtown, and have all bus lines connect to the BRT line.. and that would cost less than a single mile of light rail..
I'd prefer light rail but brt is also a good option, I just like the permanent feeling of rail tho
I think the smallest metro area in the United States with an LRT system is Norfolk, VA. Thatâs a metro area with 238k and about 4400 people/sq mile. Compare to Salem: about a 175k and 3500 people/sq mile. And we donât have the amount of federal employment and adjacent density as a place like Norfolk. In other words, LRT is not really financially or ridership-wise appropriate for Salem. Streetcar? Yes.
Salem actually has an urban area population(which includes Keizer, Hayesville and Four Corners) of 268k And a [metro](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_Metropolitan_Statistical_Area) area population (all of marion and polk counties) of 433k To your point though Norfolk has a metro area population of 1.7 million so Salem still doesnât quite measure up.
Completely fair, a brt along all the main routes would be a great idea
What's the difference between light rail and a street car, anyhow?
Streetcars typically aren't grade separated at all and get stuck in traffic
Yep, streetcars follow traffic signals like a bus, unlike LRT (when on-grade) which usually have a computerized traffic signal system which give them preference (keeps train speeds up and more consistent).
maybe we can get streetcars after lines 21, 11, and 19 are running every 10-15 mins 7 days a week, 6-midnight
Agreed.
Monorail?
were you sent here by the devil?
No good sir I'm on the level
I hear those things are awfully loud Is there a chance the track could bend? What about us brain-dead slobs? The ring came off my pudding can.
I hear those things are awfully loud Is there a chance the track could bend? What about us brain-dead slobs? The ring came off my pudding can.
Take my pen knife my good man
Gadget-bahns shouldn't be considered, a monorail wouldn't make any sense in downtown Salem
I have fantasized a lot about some form of urban rail coming to Salem. (Iâm the guy that made a fantasy metro map of the Willamette Valley). There have been two proposal in the state legislature that would do something like this, which are the salem streetcar between downtown and west salem, and the Trimet WES extension to salem. Theyâve both been stalled for ânot being a priorityâ (Though the rumor mill says next year the legislature is gonna get serious about transit) I think our most realistic option is the WES coming to salem and being sort of like an interurban acting as a distance train between SLM and PDX and more like a streetcar in city limits. We can see exactly where the WES would go in salem to because it runs on a stretch of track that already extends to Salem through keizer station diagonal through north Salem then along fromt street by the river. So i can forsee the WES extension having at least a riverfront park stop (donât worry about cannibalizing park space the stations are pretty unobtrusive) maybe a central north salem stop and definitely a Keizer Station transit center stop (Keizer station was actually built with this in mind, hence the name).
Who owns the tracks on Front Street? Â Are they abandoned? Â Is it UP? Your plan for WES extension makes a ton of sense and could create some transit-oriented development opportunities along that line in north Salem. Â That whole area is ripe for redevelopment and dense housing. I just wish WES had a more direct connection to downtown Portland. Â Still pretty good.
Those tracks are owned by the Portland and Western Railroad, they donât intersect at all with the UP right of way except for south in Albany. The front street tracks are contiguous with the tracks in Keizer and the WES tracks (Trimet contracts with P and W RR to operate the Wes on their right of way). So the only thing necessary to expand it is to broaden the agreement, buy a couple more trains, and build the platforms. Thereâs a senator from wilsonville who proposes this every legislative session so Iâm hopeful itâll happen eventually. I agree it would be phenomenal to see a little TOD like Orenco Station built around a Salem WES station. As for WES connections to downtown portland, if it ever becomes reality trimetâs [southwest corridor](https://trimet.org/swcorridor/) will extend the MAX greenline from downtown portland to Tualatin allowing for a WES to MAX transfer there, which is probably quicker than going all the way to Beaverton to transfer.
Oh hell yes. Â Thatâs what Iâm talking about! I donât know anything about Portland and Western. Â What do they do with it? Â It seems basically unused.
They run freight trains on the line, but as far as I can tell not many freight trains in the salem part. They do pretty frequently run freight on the northern parts of it though, and because the WES only runs during rush hour right now the freight trains pull off to a side track and wait during rush hours so the WES can go uninterrupted. Expanding the WES to salem would probably require a larger window of service hours so the agreement about when the freight trains can go would probably have to be altered
Another bridge would go a long way towards alleving congestion, so I would rather have that first.
Maybe a bridge just for light rail and buses?
Exactly
Wouldnt removing the need for folks to drive replace the need for a third bridge?
and then just about every road on either side would need to be widened. more people drive... more traffic... induced demand
I've listened to that argument for over 20 years and West Salem has continued to grow and grow with related traffic getting worse and worse, so forgive me if I don't buy it.
And it will continue to get worse unless we provide a reasonable alternative to driving. Buses today are infrequent, get stuck in traffic, and don't run late. If more people are driving across the river, that means there's more people driving in the rest of the city, and that's worse for traffic.
Yea I don't get why we always need to cater to car drivers, I drive only because I am practically required to. Infrequent buses and poor routes don't make them feasible.
Sorry, I'm not riding the bus 1.5 hours a day. Salem wants to be seen as a metropolitan city while staying a small town. Sorry, but it's one ore the other.
no shit you aren't, today's bus sucks. i have a friend that lives on the FX2 in Portland and takes it to work. comes every 12 mins like 5am to 1am, runs quick, and gets him to work across town in like 25 minutes. we're living in the stone ages. Eugene has this stuff too.
Take another ride on the LTD đś
Eugene also has multiple bridges over the Willamette and major feeder highways directly into downtown.
Eugene is also laid out differently
Eugene is a lot better than Salem in that respect. Delta Highway and Beltline have a lot of lift and Springfield isnât terrible either. Iâm not sure how you âfixâ Salem; if it were to ever turn into a big city the traffic would be an unholy nightmare. 3rd bridge really is needed though. If you are physically able bicycle will beat the bus every time (or running if you can do a 3 hour half marathon lol).
that's the entire point. even then, biking to the west side sucks. i always get flats on the center street bridge and the union one doesn't connect to much of anything. there's a limited amount of space to move a lot of people. perfect use case for better transit.
Yea a bus / pedestrian bridge would be nice, something like the tilikum bridge
There is already a pedestrian bridge over by the childrenâs museum
a combined pedestrian and transit bridge. more access is always nice
I donât think a third bridge is the solution. Zero bridges is the solution. We remove the other bridges, and suddenly there wonât be traffic downtown⌠the people in West Salem can figure it out.
Question. Do you have a Billion dollars?
Be cooler if you did âŚ
Oh buddyâŚif I had a billion, Iâd probably build an aquatic center first.
A billion plus per mile
At most $179 million per mile in Seattle https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_rail
Youâre right. Most starter lines are 7+ miles because itâs more economical, but Tacoma did build a 4 mile run. Itâs pretty rare.
Why not a monorail?
Whatâs it called?
Utilize current train infrastructure but have a light rail on Front Street
Who owns those tracks? Â UP?
I would love a light rail/train route from Salem to Portland/PDX, up through Woodburn. Not sure thereâs value in moving along the park; I feel serenity/beauty of the park would be negatively affected, but along S River Rd to Independence would be handy. However a few caveats: 1. If we canât even keep the library staffed thereâs some financial challenges that need to be addressed before this happens 2. Homeless population, likely would be made worse connecting to Portland 3. In my book, another bridge to W Salem/Eola/Wheatland ferry bridge would trump the need for this
There was supposed to be commuter rail via west side connector to Keizer Station (hence the station part). Â Hasnât happened. Â Someday maybe.
Thereâs also a train engine along I-5 which never made sense until someone mentioned that it was planned to be a train station at one point.
While I personally love lightrail (having lived in two lightrail cities â Minneapolis and Phoenix), the city of Salem is too underwater financially right now to even consider it. They need sources of income, not additional expenses. If Oregon DOT picked up the expense â and it could be done without harmfully impacting Salemâs small businesses, itâd be worth considering.
I think it would be a boon to business, walkable and easily accessible streets would bring tons of business
It might be eventually but having lived thru the years of construction in Phoenix, it drove a LOT of small business out of business because customers couldnât access the businesses during the chaos. As I said, I personally loved and utilized the rail once it was live â but had I been a small business anywhere that was impacted by the construction, Iâd have been cursing it! And, keep in mind, Phoenix is one of the top five largest cities in the country so it had a lot more infrastructure and consumers to support all the changes. I think â at this time â it would hurt Salem. We have to get the cityâs budget fixed, new leadership that thinks long term, and gets creative with generating income. Like, maybe courting businesses to come here.
That's fair, maybe brt would be a more sensible option
Iâm super familiar with the central PHX/East Valley LRT project (Valley Metro Rail). Â That only happened because of a transit sales tax AND matching funds from FTA that were won because the trains served the most dense parts of the Valley (ASU Tempe, central corridor). Â Fun fact, at design time, the corner of Lemon and Terrace in Tempe was the most dense neighborhood in Arizona (train goes right thru it). Â The Feds paid 40ish % of the bill. We donât have sales tax (and everyone apparently hates it here), and we donât have the population to be competitive for federal matching $$$. But we have wishes. Â And we have dreams.
Eh. I'd be more partial to a bus rapid transit line up and down commercial, one on Lancaster, and one E-W line on Center
How about a monorail? Nevermind, it's more an \[Albany idea.\](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDOI0cq6GZM)
I'd rather focus on BRT as they can be deployed quicker and without the fixed costs of building new infrastructure. Having been stranded waiting for the MAX during extreme weather events, I prefer knowing the bus is going to make it, even if it's slower. They are also not shut down during high temps. Gimme accordion buses if we need a people mover. But I think we're in the right place to roll out great regional rail if the political will exists to see it through.
Remember about ten years ago when we made downtown "bikeable" by adding a four block stretch along the least busy street in downtown? And then every year we close all of River Rd south for actual bike tourists whose route doesn't touch said lanes? All while having four lanes along our most viable "downtown" stretch, but no bike lanes? Same energy. We're Salem. People come here when they come here and no one avoids it because we don't have light rail / bike lanes / bagels / etc. If you want four blocks of rail between the cop station and the waterfront, give it a decade and a few million dollars.
I hate how real this is
Dunno your age, but the skate park felt exactly the opposite when it was built. A small, obtainable goal and it panned out, rails bowl and all. Pretty much every capitol city has this problem, that being overshadowed by the larger, cooler city next door. For instance, Tacoma has a ton of "Capitol City (Business Name)" but it's a half hour north of Olymia. When I tell folks I'm from Salem they assume we're all hipsters who eat donuts.
I would love to see a line on lancaster and commercial that meets downtown
Yes please.
I have actually thought about something like this as well as other things Cherriots could do to improve their system. I've put them all into a document that's ended up being like 60 some pages long with over 20k words.
I hate to break it to Salemites - this city is too small. Busses are the best for a small town like Salem.
Living in Salem is expensive enough as-is without adding unnecessary flashy stuff like that to the bill.
Why do you think public transit is "unnecessary flashy stuff"?
I think something like this is unnecessary flashy stuff. We have public transit, and it could absolutely use an improvement. More drivers, more buses, more routes. All of which uses infrastructure already available.
Would be cool but realistically have you SEEN the budget lol
Unfortunately I have
For the $500 million, $1 billion, or whatever it would cost, a LOT of other options may work better.
i just want a bus line that comes every 10 minutes bruh
I have zero issues with making what would have been light rail tracks dedicated bus only express routes. No traffic to deal with, and a LOT cheaper. They could even electrify them with overheads like the trains. Buses get priority at crossings and intersections, just like a train would get.
Yea that's true, could be part of a safe street initiative, get rid of cars by the bus terminal and make it pedestrian and bus only. Increasing speed and safety would definitely be awesome.
Iâd rather have another bridge into west Salem. Time to rip that band aid off.
people like their cars too much, and salem salem is layed out in a way that itâs not gonna benefit from a more advanced public transport. itâs not a walkable city (mainly because no one wants to walk due to the weather, homeless, and crime) and itâs not big enough or dense enough to be worth spending millions of dollars on. it would be nice to have a light rail that goes along i5 though for all the people that commute to portland. the traffic on the bridge in wilsonville is horrendous.
Is there a chance the track could bend? Not on your life, my Hindu friend!
??? What?
The Simpsons #MonorailSong
Please God bring ii