New Beaverton-Hillsdale / Scholls Ferry Intersection

http://wiki.keithl.com/BHSF

Washington County and CH2M Hill plan to redesign "six corners" AKA "disfunction junction".

Here's an older plan

The worst aspect of the existing alignment is that the intersection angle is so acute that BH Highway drivers must turn almost 180 degrees to see traffic from the left. For pedestrians and cyclists like myself, the very long crosswalks (interrupted by steep traffic islands) are a car-dodging death trap.

Ideally, Scholls Ferry should cross Beaverton Hillsdale at a 90 degree intersection, but the diagonal kink in BH makes that impossible.

However, the older plan can be improved greatly, changing a 30 degree intersection into a 70 degree intersection, by rerouting Scholls Ferry EASTWARD through the current location of the abandoned Safeway and, moving the main crossing two blocks to the east, rather than an added slalom through the lumberyard. With the new plan, Oleson no longer terminates directly at BH highway, but to the re-aligned Scholls Ferry, four hundred feet to the south.

Besides the new crossing light and the new Oleson/Scholls light, this shows three more lights near the main crossing:

• Dogwood Lane to the west, crossing Beaverton Hillsdale Highway
• Hamilton to the north, a tee at Scholls Ferry road
• 62th street to the east, a tee at at Beaverton Hillsdale Highway

These lights, plus the light at 78th to the west and Oleson/Scholls to the south, will all be synchronized with traffic cams and a smart controller - the purpose is to modify traffic flows on the major streets so that the east-west and north-south platoons synchronize at the crossing. This can greatly reduce "interference" and increase the flow through that intersection; most drivers will not even need to stop.

Why a light at Dogwood? Besides synchronization, that light can be the only entrance and exit point for the new retail areas north and south. Eliminating driveways will increase safety after traffic moves faster.

Why a light at 62nd? That connects to the recently expanded Robison Health center, and a lot of new senior housing to the south. Those seniors will use transit (hopefully) and drive cars unsafely (probably). Faster Beaverton-Hillsdale traffic (hopefully) will lead to more turn-related accidents (probably). Some cynics may hope that this will reduce the senior population, but it will probably just put more seniors in rehab, attracting more elderly visitors and even more turn accidents. Let's not go there.

There is an unfortunate downslope south of BH highway - with infinite funds, I would resculpt the slopes, build frontage roads on the north and south, add yet another light just east of Fred Meyer, using that for west-end frontage road access. That road would also serve as a pretty decent bicycle path. Sadly, my funds (and county and state funds) are finite.

With smoother flow east of 78th, the choke points shift towards Beaverton. Hopefully the Western Avenue rebuild will improve that intersection. A remaining issue is what Google Maps claims is a bicycle and pedestrian crossing at 99th, an issue I have tried to correct myself with Google (which pretends that artificial intelligence allows them to be naturally stupid). Since Google does have infinite money, this bad information won't be corrected.

However, if BH traffic can be synchronized between Western and 66th, a pedestrian/cyclist light at 99th can be added to save some lives, without slowing the synchronized traffic platoons.

I hope, I wish ... as a pedestrian, cyclist, and transit user living on 99th, contemplating the recent addition of a new daycare at the corner, and the future addition of 15 new homes in the new Amaya Place housing development off 99th.