Portland is no stranger to neighbors staging revolts against highway and road projects. (

should be a required Google search for the city’s middle schoolers.)

But on Friday, North and Northwest Portland residents plan to put a different spin on the traditional transportation demonstration: They’re problem isn’t with the road, but with evening commuters who are using it the wrong way.

For the past few years, Northwest Bridge Avenue leading from westbound U.S. 30 to the St. Johns Bridge has increasing become a vortex of gridlock and road rage.

It’s a perfect example of how mob rule can overtake common sense and traffic laws on some Portland area roads during rush hour.

Two lanes lead up the hill before merging right before the storied old bridge leading to North Portland. But during the evening commute, most drivers stick in the right hand lane. And many straddle what they see as no good line-cutting by other commuters coming up on the left, they ride the middle, hogging both lanes.

“A lot of the discussion about how to use that road has been angry and polarizing,” said Mary-Margaret Wheeler-Weber, a Portsmouth resident and one of the event’s organizers. “We’re going to show up and give positive reinforcement to people who are sharing the road and merging properly.”

The plan is to have two groups standing along Bridge Avenue starting at 4:30 p.m. Friday --one at the bottom and one where the merge happens at the top of the hill.

Wheeler-Weber said signs held by demonstrators will have positive slogans such as “thank you for merging” and “thank you for driving friendly.”

The groups will also use cheerleading pom-poms, singing and applause for those who are driving in a way to encourage traffic flow.

I called out the lane hogs in

.

Besides causing gridlock -- and stirring road rage by flipping off and honking at people trying to legally pass on the left -- the lane-straddling drivers are breaking a law that comes with $142 ticket.

Oh, and there’s one other big problem: The signs leading up to the merge read “right lane ends.” So, commuters in the left lane actually have the right-of-way; drivers using aggressive block-out tactics in the right lane don’t.

“The driver who refuses to merge is his or her own worst enemy in traffic flow,” said Don Spiegel of Portland in an email responding to the column. “There is a long list of places in this city where this lack of common sense and courtesy takes place, and Bridge Avenue is only one of the more obvious.”

After the column ran,

to discuss the problem.

Wheeler-Weber said the column gave evening commuters caught in the Bridge Avenue traffic jams the confidence to stage the positive protest. “It’s a longstanding issue for us,” she said. “It gave us the official word that using both lanes is the legal way.”

The Oregon Department of Transportation added the left lane to allow passenger vehicles to pass big trucks lumbering up the steady incline. When the commute gets thick, drivers should merge zipper-like before the bridge.

Although the road is in Northwest Portland, many North Portland residents driving home from downtown get stuck in the bottleneck every night. Neighbors said they have asked the police to patrol the pinch point and ticket aggressive drivers, but say they haven’t received much response.

Even TriMet bus drivers have been seen blocking traffic from merging on the left.

Wheeler-Weber decided a year ago that she was going to avoid using Bridge Avenue. The decision came after a stressful commute where other drivers shouted insults at her, flashed insulting gestures and pulled out to block her from using the left lane, nearly forcing her across the double yellow line into oncoming traffic.

“Maybe this will help change the culture,” she said. “Instead of someone taking the left lane and hearing, ‘You’re a jerk and I want to kill you.’ We want to thank them for taking the left lane.”

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