Something has been missing from the public hearings on a proposed plan to ease congestion on Congress Street: the public.

For some reason, the planners have been unable to engage the city’s residents and business people in the theoretical work around redesigning the city’s main drag to move people more effectively.

Additional Photos

Halting left turns along Congress Street and reversing some one-way streets are some of the solutions being considered to relieve congestion on the crowded downtown road. Staff file photo

That is about to change, now that the Press Herald published a map showing a complicated scheme of one-way streets and no left turns proposed between Franklin and High streets.

The plan appears to be a good way to keep traffic moving, but also creates potential headaches for businesses and the visitors who want to patronize them. All those interests will be heard as the plan is evaluated by the City Council’s Transportation Committee this summer.

The plan has been characterized as friendly to buses and unfriendly to cars, but that is not accurate. The goal is to move all traffic — buses, cars, bicycles and pedestrians — smoothly through the zone.

Since widening the street is not an option, the only way to improve Congress Street for cars is to have fewer of them. That means providing other routes across town on parallel streets, and providing reasonable alternatives for people who are now driving, but might be willing to ride a bus.

For most people, the buses are not fast or frequent enough to be a dependable way to get around. Redesigning Congress Street, where several bus routes converge, could give people who are driving now the incentive to leave their cars at home.

While all that sounds good in theory, legitimate questions have been raised by business owners who are concerned that radical changes in traffic patterns could steer potential customers away from them. No one would benefit from an attempt to fix traffic congestion by discouraging people who don’t live in Portland from visiting or working here.

The Transportation Committee now has the public’s attention. It will be up to its members to work with all the interested parties to come up with a plan that would ease congestion downtown the right way.

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