PDX GENERAL 23 WENDELL COX PORTLAND FREEWAY TRAFFIC VS MAX LIGHT RAIL
From: msetty@no-spam (Michael D. Setty)
Subject: Wendell Cox: Portland Freeway Traffic vs. MAX Light Rail
Date: 3 Jul 2003 18:26:45 -0700


New post at www.publictransit.us
Mr. Wendell Cox has done it again! He's posted simple-minded statistics that he thinks "proves" that Portland, Oregon's MAX light rail system has had no impact on automobile traffic in the 1997-2002
period (www.publicpurpose.com/ut-porw2002.pdf).

Well, looking at more data, one could draw exactly the opposite conclusion, e.g., while overall traffic growth on four freeway corridors converging on downtown Portland (I-5 north, I-5 south, I-84
east, and US-26 west) has increased slightly overall, the traffic increases would have been much higher than they were if light rail hadn't been running at all.