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Here’s the thing about traffic: It has to go somewhere — and the more of it there is, the more drivers will seek out routes that weren’t designed to handle an escalating influx of vehicles.

That’s dilemma facing transportation and Medford officials as they attempt to make practical long-range plans to handle chronic congestion in the south part of the city as it stretches toward Phoenix.

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Construction of either a third interchange, or an overpass, at South Stage Road, come with their own sets of logistical, legal and financial issues.

With estimates of at Medford population increases of at least 5,000 over the next 20 years, it follows that there will be a concurrent increase of vehicles as well. And, as anyone who has tried to go across the city on an east-west direction can tell you … it’s near-high impossible to get there from here.

The problem is two-fold — Interstate 5, and Bear Creek. Which is why the ingenious, if ultimately quixotic, notion of building a tunnel was floated at a recent Medford City Council meeting.

Not so fast, the council was told by the consulting firm hired analyze possible solutions to the growing traffic conundrum.

Mike Butorac of Kittelson & Associates said that a tunnel would require extensive engineering work to be built under Bear Creek and still could be subject to flooding.

Then there’s the cost. Don’t ask.

Tunnels have been proposed before for helping drivers get from hither to yon across Medford. Decades ago, when the viaduct had effectively split the city in two, a public official suggested tearing the whole thing down and replacing it with a tunnel.

The cost? Don’t ask.

There’s little doubt that some solution is needed. Because alleviating the jam would require interaction with the highway, federal approval will be needed. On a recent swing through Medford, U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, made it clear he was well-aware of the problem — and the potential federal funding needed for a potential project.

Construction of either a third interchange, or an overpass, at South Stage Road in south Medford come with their own sets of logistical, legal and financial issues. Upgrades to currently impacted streets might ease things in the short term; but they weren’t built to handle unlimited growth in vehicle use.

While the city awaits the results of this year-long study, each potential solution will come with its own set of unforeseen aftershocks.

Or, as Butorac put it to the City Council: “What problems do we solve? What problems do we introduce?”

Medford and Phoenix are growing and, whether it will be seen in subdivisions or businesses, with that expansion will come impacts on what those behind the wheel expect as a basic service.

Until a direction is decided upon, however, it’ll remain something else to think about while we’re stuck in traffic.