Everyone who makes the trip to and from work every day knows how much more congested the roads in the Portland-Vancouver area are compared to just a few years ago. No matter if your travels take you south to Portland, west to Hillsboro, east to Gresham or north to home, we see increasing delays everywhere.
The most recent report on congestion from INRIX (a national firm that collects and analyzes traffic data) shows Portland-Vancouver area drivers have the 12th-most congested commute in America, spending an average of 50 peak hours stuck in congestion in 2017. Numbers like this show that the status quo is not an option and without effective new practices, conditions will only get worse as the area grows.
The good news is that congestion relief is on the way. The transportation investment package passed by the Oregon Legislature in 2017, known as Keep Oregon Moving, funds new highway lanes on I-5, I-205 and Highway 217 to address bottlenecks; provides more transit, biking, and walking options so people have choices to get around; and improves freight rail service to move goods by train rather than truck.
But while these new investments will help reduce traffic congestion, more tools are needed to produce the kind of impact our area hopes to see.
That’s where tolling comes in. Tolling is an effective tool used in many states to generate funds to help build more lanes and ease congestion.
The Oregon Legislature, in the Keep Oregon Moving bill, directed the Oregon Transportation Commission to develop a plan for tolling on the I-5 and I-205 corridors to reduce traffic congestion. As we have developed this plan, we’ve been listening for more than a year to the genuine concerns of thousands of people. We’ve connected more than 30,000 times with the public in the Portland-Vancouver area through surveys, online comments and in-person meetings.
Public involvement
We’ve heard from low-income families who fear another tax on daily living. We’ve heard from neighborhoods who don’t want people diverting onto their residential streets to avoid tolls or congestion. We’ve heard from mass transit operators who want to ensure they can meet increased demand for their services.
And we’ve heard from Clark County commuters who were particularly concerned that they would pay a toll just to cross the river to work and not get any real benefit. As a result, we focused tolling on two bottlenecks where tolling can help pay for the additional capacity these corridors will demand in the future. Tolls can help improve I-5 through central Portland, including the congested bottleneck at the Rose Quarter that has long been a headache for I-5 commuters, and widen I-205 in Clackamas County, including the Abernethy Bridge over the Willamette River.
Several steps have to happen before any tolls would be levied. If Oregon gets federal approval to move forward, planning would be followed by a review that would help determine exactly where tolls would start and finish and the cost and time of day they’d be in place, as well as figure out how to minimize negative impacts raised by community members. As with the process to date, each of these steps will include extensive public involvement. If approved, it will be years before tolling would actually begin in Oregon.
No magic plan will make everything better, but we can make real progress when we marshal our energies into a broad assault on the problem. The steps we take today could improve travel for everyone, with fewer delays, better freight movement and less aggravation.
Tammy Baney is chair of the Oregon Transportation Commission.
Alando Simpson is a member of the Oregon Transportation Commission and was co-chair of the Value Pricing Advisory Committee.
