Infrastructure Issues... Who Has Them...
Multiple ideas, 3rd party partners and just poor math, make it difficult to trust anyone...
Oregon’s transportation transparency can easily be blamed on too many committees and “ACS”... that is Advisory Counsels. They might not over lap but shear amount of their meetings over any given month makes it difficult to follow what is going on.
Diversion, the term used to refer to traffic that will spill onto local neighborhoods, might best be used as to how ODOT distracts the public from the real story of tolling.
As noted in the articles below, problems amass because there truly is no consistency.
In Short
Article 1 - The toll plans that are shaping up across the State of Oregon each seem to be supported and operated by different Back-Office companies. Both on-shore and off-shore entities will soon have our vital information.
Is this going to be a Texas size problem for Oregon? If so, this article, from The Texas Tribune, sheds a bit of light on what to expect.
Article 2 - Conduent, in 2017, produced a guide to tolling highways and cities. Though it might seem dated, this paper outlines multiple toll programs and their advantages. If one were to follow correctly, it would seem we are ignoring the obvious.
Note how Conduent states that tolls pay for projects but they do not reduce congestion.
Article 3 - State law requires the MTA to raise $1 billion annually… but the 2019 law does not dictate the dollar amount of the congestion toll, nor how much congestion it should alleviate. FYI, this is a Cordon pricing project in Manhattan, NY.
Simple math says that tolling only on workdays will raise $2.4 billion annually… this at $10 per vehicle and not at the $20 toll currently being considered. Talk about administrative costs!
Weekly Articles
Are Texas sized issues coming our way?
This is The Complete Guide to Tolling in the United States... interesting...