The illogic of trying to fight congestion with more capacity

A bridge-backer wrote an op-ed for the Salem Statesman-Journal this week, and as the brief excerpt below wonderfully verifies, the logic of sprawl is this: You can never build enough.

That is, as your city sprawls, more and more trips require the use of a car, which leads to more and more traffic problems, and more and more pressure to address those problems with the same "solutions" that have been failing all along (more infrastructure to support cars).

New Salem bridge is only part of solution

MICHAEL DEVINE

February 21, 2008

There have been letters recently that support stopping the bridge project across the Willamette.

Can anyone other than me remember when the Salem population was less than 50,000? Growth will not stop simply by killing a bridge project.

In fact, what is needed now is a fourth bridge across the Willamette.

There you have it folks -- this $700 million proposed for this third bridge is really just a down payment on completely paving over the Willamette, the better to allow people to live away from the bankrupt city in the center of the sprawl-plex in what was once recognized as one of the loveliest places in the world.