What I’m talking about is placing a soundwall between the station platform and the freeway (and not the transport corridor and the adjacent neighborhood, which is more common). I see it more as mitigating the existing conditions. This is where the freeway is already in place and the rail line is being added alongside. I’m not suggesting that they built a sound wall the whole length of the freeway or rail line, but rather just where the stations are.

Sure some will say having a sound wall next to a station is unpleasant but I think the constant loud never-ending sound of cars and trucks zooming by and trucks jake-braking is many times worse (nevermind the exhaust pollution).

Theres also something not pleasant about seeing vehicles zoom by in the direction you are going while you wait on the platform for your vehicle to arrive. My guess is that plays into ones head and further explains why transit along freeways is less attractive to riders. At least a wall would block the view of traffic both clogged and free-flowing.

i’m thinking of the lines that run along freeways in portland, sacramento, san jose, los angeles (green line/harbor transitway/el monte), BART, denver, chicago, etc. and i cant think of any with sound walls protecting the stations from freeway noise. i believe they do however with the DC Metro, MARTA and Boston’s Savin Hill Station.

And I agree with Alon, it is demonstrably false that freeway traffic gets worse with a subway. The Bay Bridge, for example, didn’t get more congested when BART opened. It was slow 40 years ago, and slow today. While BART generates suburban sprawl of its own, it provides a service to enhance the downtowns of Oakland and San Francisco. If BART didn’t exist, and the Bay Area freeway system was built as planned, you would likely see the edge cities of San Ramon, Foster City, Walnut Creek, etc. develop just as fast, with other centers at the intersection of freeway interchanges, forever immune to transit use by choice riders.

But it’s likely the freeway traffic would get worse with a subway.

Why? This is not observed in cities that actually do have subways.

The real problem with Portland is that unlike Calgary, it never decided to make light rail its primary mode of commuting. Calgary not only had reserved ROW since the 1960s, but also avoided building freeways to compete with light rail. Even the nationally important Trans-Canada Highway is not built to freeway standard within central Calgary; only one north-south link is a full freeway through the city. This contrasts with the pattern of freeways going through city centers in all US cities except New York and San Francisco.

Correction: Here’s first part of the first paragraph that got lost in posting:

Portland’s MAX runs slowly along surface streets through the city center, 20 minutes to go 4 miles. Some say a fast subway is necessary. But it’s likely the freeway traffic would get worse with a subway. The real factor generating overwhelming amounts of commuting by car and transit is the nature of suburban development.

Portland’s MAX runs slowly along surface streets through the city center, 20 minutes to go 4 miles. Some say a fast subway is necessary. But it’s likely the freeway traffic would get worse with a subway. The real factor generating overwhelming amounts of commuting by car and transit is the nature of suburban development. A subway is an attempt to accommodate an amount of commuting that it can’t handle nor can freeways, obviously. Though a subway may increase the number of transit users, an even greater number of car commuters will be generated if the nature of suburban development remains the same. Faster is slower.

Vancouver has a population of some 160,000, about 60,000 commuting to Portland weekdays. Vancouver plans to develop more housing further out in typical suburban sprawl style. And, opposition to extending ’slow’ MAX light rail to Vancouver and then Vancouver Mall remains, though it would focus housing in high-density clusters and bring jobs of all kinds by which Vancouverites would reduce their need to commute to Portland. Slower is faster.

Seattlers do not understand this theory…

During rush hour, Portland traffic IMHO rivals that of LA for low speed. (It doesn’t for time, since LA traffic can spill over into different dayparts, while Portland traffic… with the notable exception of I-5 between Lake Oswego and Killingsworth – is non-congested the rest of the day.) Thus, transit is the least bad of the options, although I wonder if bicyclists eastbound get off at Lloyd Center and pedal downtown. They likely would get to work faster than staying on the train.

Now the Seattle light rail system is way over-built, with BART-like stations for a light rail, and way overserved, with 10 minute service well into the evening, seven days a week. Eventually, it will probably be cut back to Phoenix-level frequencies (20 in the evening and on Sundays).

Overall, having observed both cities, the Seattle model of express buses serving big centers and park and rides alike works like it would for a first-tier city, while Portland’s slow, but frequent and closely-spaced transit, works well for that community. I would probably choke someone if I were forced to live in Portland, but for the people that live there, it seems to work well.