Elizabeth Graser Lindsey lives in rural Clackamas County. The main county road near her home was designed years ago for farm traffic. With its narrow, winding curves, it can barely serve the present community. In fact, it already has four times as many accidents each year as other similar roads elsewhere in the state.

So Elizabeth can’t help but worry what will happen if 37 homes are built on 39 acres off Beavercreek Road. And that’s just one of the many Measure 37 claims proposed in her part of Clackamas County.

According to Elizabeth’s research, traffic engineers expect 10 additional auto trips for every new home built. That means more crashes as drivers get hit from behind while trying to turn left or head-on collisions when cars cross into oncoming traffic lanes while trying to avoid cyclists and pedestrians.

With subdivisions planned on dozens of rural roads throughout the state, Oregonians can expect more road crashes than ever before. They also can expect more stress on the state’s overburdened highway funds and other funds that support police and fire, sewer and water services, as housing spreads into rural areas.

That’s one of the reasons people such as Elizabeth want to close the loopholes of Measure 37 that allow large subdivisions and commercial and industrial development in places where they just don’t belong. Elizabeth supports Measure 49 because it will fix those flaws and restore balance in Oregon.