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VMT Tax Pilot Gets Underway
Jim Mayer reports in the Monday O that ODOT is ready to roll out its pilot test of a VMT tax system. 280 test subjects will drive around with a GPS device in their car for 10 months. Discussion of this idea on other blogs has tended to degenerate into a argument around privacy concerns,…
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When the Money Runs Out
There was a transportation panel at last week’s Illahee symposium, “Oil Water and Oregon”. Of course the gas tax came up. As the gas tax loses buying power to inflation and greater fuel economy, the funds available for maintenance continue to get squeezed. One panelist opined that the message voters were sending in voting down…
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Update on Tolling
According to Saturday’s O, anti-toll signs are beginning to appear along 99W in Newberg. Meanwhile, motorists on 99W are going to be randomly sampled to determine origins and destinations and their attitudes toward polling. This article also launched a thread on Blue Oregon. Also in the news last week, Mitch Daniels, the Governor of Indiana,…
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Dueling Op-eds
It would seem our contributors don’t always agree :-) Last week, Scott Bricker had an op-ed piece in the Oregonian questioning whether the benefits suggested in the “Cost of Congestion” study were worth the cost. Yesterday brought another op-ed in the O, this one from another contributor, Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder. Rex counters that while…
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The Other Tollbooth Drops
In Sunday’s Oregonian, Jim Mayer reports that a study of the tolling options for building the Newberg Dundee bypass concludes that the most efficient revenue model would require tolling BOTH the new bypass and the existing route on 99W.