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We hate traffic more than we value sleep.

On Thursday night this last week, I had to drive into Tigard and Beaverton (two cities on Portland's west side) during the night time. I was amazed to see that a major construction project on Oleson Rd. was running during the night!

Oleson Rd. is a very valuable connector in the hilly southwest part of the metro area. It has been undergoing a redesign and repaving project for what seems like forever. But it runs almost 100% through residential neighborhoods. There is almost zero non-residential property actually on Oleson.

But Sunday through Thursday nights, they are working through the nights on the road. With bright lights and loud equipment. Many, probably hundreds, of homes are within mere feet of the road construction. As they widened the road, the yards of these homes shrunk considerably. Lots of the homes are now within one dog-leash of the new sidewalks. And there are significantly more homes in close proximity.

So apparently those communities would rather not sleep - than have extra road construction delays during the day.

Tell me that the car is not king...

If they tried to do a 24hour a day road construction project next to my house, I think I would polish up on my Edward Abbey reading...
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