Scrap ODOT passing lane plan for Highway 20

The Oregon Department of Transportation’s current passing lane Highway 20 widening plans would exacerbate existing safety problems. The passing lane widening would create additional unsafe conditions.

While area growth may be at this time unavoidable, decisions resulting from that growth should be neither unduly harmful nor irresponsible. Public involvement was virtually non-existent in ODOT’s Highway 20 plans, due to their failure to adequately notify the community. ODOT must re-open this process and engage the area community so more effective and responsible plans can be developed.

Alternatives were offered to ODOT at their recent open house that offer far better solutions: 1. Posting cautionary signs along the highway noting that this is a deer migration area and — for eastbound traffic — that the town of Sisters is just ahead.

Instead of the usual ODOT signs, the agency could work with area artists, including high school art students, to create attention-getting artful signs cautioning motorists to drive slowly due to deer and other wildlife, and welcoming them to this rare ponderosa pine old growth entrance to the town of Sisters and Central Oregon.

2. Instead of spending millions on widening a section of this scenic highway, funds could be allocated to state and county police for more effective enforcement of speed limits and safe driving.

3. Further to the west on Highway 20, the road climbs a steep hill. This location is well suited to alternate passing lanes on the hill’s incline — with two westbound lanes on the hill’s east uphill side, and two eastbound lanes on the hill’s westside incline — allowing faster uphill traffic to safely pass slower moving vehicles.

This placement would impact far fewer trees, expand the highway to three staggered lanes on each side of the hill instead of four lanes, is farther from the Sisters and the Tollgate community traffic, impacts a far smaller stretch of wildlife travel area and encourages responsible traffic speeds rather than placating and rewarding dangerous speeding (especially in winter’s icy conditions).

4. Opening the process to increased public involvement meets the mandates of state and federal legal requirements, solicits additional solutions that will likely prove far more effective and feasible, allowing for the cooperative community development of reasonable solutions that can serve as a model process for future projects, rather than the forced imposition and consequent legal and political battles that are likely to ensue if ODOT’s current plans are pushed forward.

5. Delaying ODOT’s current short-sighted, hasty non-solution will permit additional time to address long-range traffic patterns and issues. This would allow for the development of more effective solutions to traffic issues in the region, assessing whether long-term solutions should contain potential Sisters truck bypass routes or other alternative solutions that have yet to be proposed.

It is hoped that ODOT’s personnel who developed the current project, and have evidenced a personally vested interest in seeing their plans implemented despite serious flaws and near-unanimous community opposition, will wisely set aside their personal attachment for the greater community good and the creation of more socially and ecologically responsible solutions.

As such, the current ODOT plans can be viewed not as a “mistake” resulting in irreparable harm (both serious traffic safety issues and the loss of centuries old rare ponderosa pine trees). Instead the current plans, once laid aside, may be seen as necessary steps towards greater community involvement leading to effective, sustainable decisions for the long-term good of all.

Asante Riverwind is the Eastern Oregon Forest Organizer for the Sierra Club.