PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — It’s not your imagination. Traffic around the Portland area is getting worse, and the Departments of Transportation in both Oregon and Washington are well aware.

“The peak periods are starting earlier, and they’re lasting longer,” said WashDOT spokesperson Bart Treece. “There are slower travel speeds as people are heading through some of these major corridors like I-5 and I-205.”

“Traffic congestion is worse everywhere in the Portland area,” said ODOT Spokesperson Don Hamilton. “It’s been true for a couple of years.”

Hamilton says this is a problem essentially caused by good things: a growing economy, more tourism and cheap gas. Population is also a huge factor, too.

The recently signed Oregon Transportation Package is expected to help over the next decade, particularly in developing ways to reduce crashes and speed up clean up after crashes do happen.

One example is on OR 217, where ODOT introduced real-time signs to alert drivers of slow downs.

“When we put this in on Highway 217 we saw a 21% drop in crashes in the first year,” Hamilton said. “That’s a significant improvement in the efficiency of the roadway.”

In Washington, WashDOT is trying things like ramp metering on I-5 entrances to try to ease congestion wherever they can.

Ultimately, though, in this economy with continued population growth, traffic is something is seems we’ll need to learn to live with.

“It’s not perfect,” Treece said. “These area lot of different things that could work, but there’s not one solution that’s going to cure everything.”