Pump up the jam

By now everybody's been warned. Southbound Interstate 5 is going to be closed through the Rose Quarter in north Portland for five weeks or so, beginning a week from Friday. The closure is going to be 24/7. Holy cow, is it going to be a mess. 

Unless, of course, you're one of Portland's many car haters, who will revel in the frustration and rage of all the drivers. "Ye heathen who do not commute by cycle, suffer the wages of your sin! Repent at the feet of Sarah Yada Yada Yada-Roni!"

Given that many such haters occupy city "transportation" jobs, you wonder how much they actually care about the congestion. And even if they do, are they competent to do the right things to help us cope with it?

I-5 southbound traffic is going to be forced onto I-405, which is going to make the top deck of the Fremont Bridge a parking lot, even more so than it already is at certain hours. I suspect the crawl is going to back up all the way across the Interstate Bridge, and it won't break up until you're south of downtown Portland. Just a guess.

You will still be able, I'm told, to get on I-5 in either direction from the westbound Banfield Freeway, and that would be my preferred way to hook up to the southbound 5, but is the Banfield going to be more packed than usual? I can imagine some 'Couverites who normally go straight south on 5 will use 205 instead, and then they will need to go west over to 5 if their destination is anywhere between Portland and, say, Tigard.

If the Banfield is a no-go, that leaves me with some pretty unsavory surface-street options, like McLoughlin Boulevard, or that hideous railroad crossing on 11th between Division and Powell. The ick factor is pretty high on both of those, but we'll have to see.

Oh, well. Break out your bikey lapel pins, kids, it's gonna be Car-mageddon.