We're starting outside today because
we're talking about tolling.
Yes, tolling on Interstate 5 and 205.
What's that you say?
You didn't know tolling was coming to Oregon?
Ohh my friend, it is definitely coming.
It'll be here by late 2025,
so about three years from now.
The idea is to get more cars and
trucks off the freeways during
the busiest times of the day.
But what if you still have
to travel during those times,
say during the rush hour?
Well, in theory you could take the bus.
But will there be enough buses
and will they run on time?
That's an excellent question that
regional politicians and planners
are just starting to wrestle with.
Already some are worried when
tolling takes over on I-5 and 2:05.
Many drivers are expected to bail
off the freeway to get around paying
the fee that will push them onto
side roads and neighborhood streets.
The Oregon Department of Transportation
is trying to figure out where that
will happen and how bad it will be,
and what can be done to make it
better or in their language,
to mitigate the impact.
One solution already being pushed is
public transportation, especially buses.
But it may not be as simple as it sounds.
Listen to Trimet's lobbyist Tom Margraff,
speaking at a regional toll
Advisory committee meeting.
We
have never done this before.
This stuff makes me nervous as a cat.
It is difficult.
It's never happened here.
It's something we need to figure out.
I think we've got great partners.
I think the partnerships that we
have with these folks are going to
make it so we can figure this out.
But like you said,
we haven't done the modeling.
We have got those terrible
constitutional restrictions on
us that other states don't have.
That's not going to go away.
But one thing I do want to
put out on the table is.
TriMet doesn't own roads.
We don't own roads, right?
We run our buses on roads,
but we need to work with all
the local jurisdictions so
that we can move buses faster
on those roads, and that means working
with partners willing to make it so
we can move buses faster on roads.
We do have a serious issue in this world.
The planet really is dying and getting
people, including the local jurisdictions,
to recognize that if we're really
going to make a difference on this.
If mitigation is going to work,
we have to get our buses moving faster.
And that means big partnerships with lots
of jurisdictional friends. It's not easy.
It's going to be really tough.
So there's that.
The constitutional issue he mentioned,
by the way, is this money made from the
use or operation of motor vehicles must
be spent on roadway projects in Oregon.
Now, I wanted to ask the TriMet lobbyist
there for more details on the buses.
What exactly is he talking
about to speed the buses up?
Are we talking about dedicated bus
lanes on the freeways and side streets
or something else? TriMet, though,
said he was not available today.
The President of the Regional
Government Metro is Lynn Peterson.
She's part of that same committee.
You just.
She's also worried about the
overload of the bus system.
If we're diverting and we have
more delay on local streets.
The impact to the transit system
during a peak period especially.
Just to keep the existing schedule
as delay increases means putting
more buses and more operators
out just to keep the existing
schedule that can go up into the
millions of dollars for one route.
So that's the import.
So that's the finer point.
I just wanted to to put on this
is that that that's the impact
that we we can barely you know
as we look forward we can barely
see keeping an existing schedule.
Let alone probably not being
able to keep an existing schedule
because there isn't the money.
Now, I have to say, I don't know if
those are genuine concerns or maybe
posturing by politicians hoping to get
more money from the federal government to
fix a problem that does not yet exist,
but one that they legitimately do see coming.
Remember, the hope is that people
not wanting to pay the tolls will
switch to public transportation.
And we've heard from many of you
that you simply cannot get to where
you need to go by bus or Max.
And even where there is
enough infrastructure,
there's a real concern about
all those people who do make.
Switch that,
they're gonna swap the bus system,
another committee member,
Clackamas County Commissioner Paul Savas,
added to the voices of concern
at that tolling meeting.
But
it's really the system.
It's the box that we're in and
that there's not enough money.
And you touched on it, Karen,
there's not enough money to do what we need.
There hasn't been any significant
improvements in where in my part of
the region when it comes to transit.
And I understand the
practical realities of #1,
the capital investment needed
and they all and M to operate.
Whatever it is we put in place,
but we keep on going back to transit and
I understand the paradigm that we've been
in listening to metro for all these years,
JPAC and over others, land use,
transportation oriented development,
a big emphasis on transit oriented
everything when we can't grow
the system to meet the needs.
So there has to be something significant.
Or else we we should bail one of the two.
How we are going to address
how we expand it or not,
because I don't see the means.
I have been asking for this for a long time.
My Members that TriMet board,
TriMet staff people, everyone.
What can we do?
Where's the money?
Wait, how can it happen in the answer
is we can't get there from here.
And I think the public needs to
know either we can't get there from
here or there is a way or a path.
But right now under the current
paradigm it's not working.
We we can't grow it to beat the need.
Which made others wonder if he was right.
Washington County Commissioner
Nafisa FAI asked Odot's head of
public transportation the question
that many were likely thinking
how are we going to pay for this?
Will tolls pay for more buses?
So how does all that tie in?
Are we going to invest some of
those revenues that we collect
into public transportation more
more specifically transit?
So I'm I'm just wondering the
revenue piece of and the idea
of who's paying for all this?
That is a fantastic question, so.
We don't exactly know who's
going to pay for what yet.
So we know that if there if the
transit is a mitigation that we
will have to come up with the
funding to pay for that mitigation.
We know toll revenues could
potentially pay for some elements of
projects that might be on this list,
but beyond that,
that's part of why we need
to look at the full range of
funding options and frankly even
considering new funding options.
Now, I don't know about you,
but when I hear the term full
range of funding options,
it means just one thing. New taxes?
We'll keep an eye out for those for you.