Wednesday, May 12, 2010
You Can't Get There from Here
When they say "you can't get there from here," they're talking about downtown Portland. As we got into the car, I said it out loud...as a joke. That was before I drove the scenic tour of Portland, forced ever further from my destination by signs that read,
NO TURNS
BUS ONLY
ONE WAY
NO TURN ON RED
LEFT ONLY
NO LEFT TURN
ROAD WORK AHEAD
LEFT LANE CLOSED
You get the idea. The poor people I was driving around must have thought I just dropped in from another planet. Obviously, I didn't know any of the local customs. I can understand having one way streets in a city. I can even understand dedicating 2 of the 3 lanes to bus and MAX lines. I don't understand why, when there are only 2 2-way streets, you can't turn off of one and you can't turn onto the other.
It was a wonder, but we actually made it to OMSI, Powells (I forgot my gift card. Guess I'll have to go again), and McMennamins, and back to the train station before their train was leaving.
Quite the 2 hours. Thanks for the adventure!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
This is one learning curve that stays flat and rarely shows any improvement. Main reasons? Well, Portland keeps changing its road routing policies, abrubtly does repair and/or realignment at a whim, caters to its lycra-clad wheelie set, uses right-of-ways as a political sign of "progress", and does not seem to use common sense in planning traffic flow. Getting almost anywhere in Portland requires a combination of luck, chance, benign accident, and raw coincidence. Well, almost!
Post a Comment