A Bit of History and Context...
Pause, stop, plan... tolling is still in the mix...
Awards are nice to get… like the trophy at the end of a hard fought game or race.. but the reality is the next event is just around the corner. If we merely look at the trophy case we miss that which is new and/or different, and we will lose the next round.
To put it differently, we can win a battle but end up losing the war.
Rumors, assumptions, positioning… and silence… are all around the tolling issue. And as tolling stays on the table, many are questioning how approximately $60+ million dollars got paid for consulting alone.
This is not the end of the game. At best, it’s half-time…
In Short
Article 1 - On March 11th of this year, Governor Tina Kotek put a stop to the Regional Mobility Pricing Project (RMPP). That was the project that would have tolled nearly 55 miles of I-5 and I-205. And, to that end, we want to say thank you to the Governor.
Policies and procedures are not an easy change, especially when the Legislators have said that is what they want. Voting aside, many in ODOT have been full throttle getting tolling in place while ignoring its effect on business and communities.
The Governor looked at the landscape, saw the shortfalls of the RMPP and stopped the program. Her statement of “…the challenges… have grown larger than the anticipated benefits” rings loudly, and we appreciate her eyes, ears and her voice.
We have posted her letter for you to reread and to understand its scope.
Article 2 - Tualatin Chamber CEO, Anneleah Jaxen, outlines how Oregontollingupdates (OTU) came about and how it has grown over the last 1.5 years.
Never popular on the forefront, OTU has maintained its direction and brought tolling information to both businesses and the community for the purpose of education and to inform of the potential impact on both.
Article 3 - We are making the Survey, which was sponsored by 4 cities alone the I-205 corridor, available for you to look thru. Although the data has already been collected it is interesting to see how questions were asked.
The survey is one of opinion rather than a menu of set items of which you can have no say.
