This just in via The Oregonian:
Gov. Tina Kotek on Monday announced her intention to halt plans to toll Portland-area freeways, citing uncertainty about the costs of planned freeway projects and the revenue tolling would bring in.
So just like that, a plan that’s been seven years in the making is kaput.
The Oregon Department of Transportation was tasked with developing a toll program for Portland-area freeways by the legislature as part of the 2017 statewide funding package. That effort became known as the Regional Mobility Pricing Project. According to ODOT, the RMPP would, “toll I-5 and I-205 in the Portland metropolitan region,” and that, “Tolling is part of ODOT’s long-term strategy to help pay for transportation improvements and provide faster, more efficient trips through the Portland metro region.”
As ODOT plodded along on what would have been a transformative step in how freeway projects are funded, pushback began to build. In January 2023 we outlined some of the very real political problems ODOT’s tolling plan faced. Then four months later, Governor Kotek ordered a pause on the plan.
As if tolls weren’t unpopular enough on their own, ODOT’s widespread lack of trust among everyday Oregonians and lawmakers made tolling almost an impossible dream. The agency had pegged toll revenue as a must-have for its own solvency and now will either have to change what kind of projects they build (unlikely) or find a new way to fund them. With a major transportation funding package on the horizon at the legislature in 2025, we’ll likely find out their new strategy soon.
On the social media platform X today, noted ODOT critic City Observatory posted:
R.I.P. Regional Mobility Pricing: Born: 2017, Died 11 March 2024. People only want more road capacity if somebody else pays for them. Mourned by: economists. Survived by the $622 million I-205 Abernethy Bridge, now to be paid for, not by those who use it, but “somebody else.”