OEC's Vision for A 21st Century Transportation System

Oregon’s transportation network binds us together in many ways. It provides businesses with access to materials and markets, and provides people with access to goods, services, recreation, jobs, and other people. Transportation touches each one of us every day. But as we round out the first decade of the 21st century, we find ourselves with a fundamentally flawed transportation system that is polluting, costly, and damaging to our communities. Consider the environmental impacts alone: motor vehicles are responsible for nearly 40% of Oregon’s global warming pollution and more than half of Oregon’s air pollution; runoff from parking lots and roads pollutes our waters; and Oregon’s open spaces and farmland are threatened by the sprawl that’s associated with poorly planned transportation infrastructure. The trend toward bigger vehicles, wider highways, more impervious pavement, and more driving simply isn’t sustainable.

The Oregon Environmental Council envisions a transportation system that is truly sustainable* from an economic, environmental and social standpoint. Because the transportation decisions we make today will have far-reaching and long-lasting impacts, let’s make sure they support the following 21st century vision:

• The health of Oregonians and the ecosystem upon which we depend is protected. Transportation no longer threatens the climate**, pollutes our air and water, or negatively impacts water hydrology.
• Oregonians have a choice of ways to get around, allowing us to get where we need to go – our job, the grocery store, our place of worship – not only alone in our car, but also by foot, bicycle, transit, rail, rideshare and other means.
• Oregon’s cities and towns have a compact urban form and grow smart, reducing the need to travel far to daily destinations.
  • Personal travel and freight movement are optimized for maximum efficiency – whether by land, water or air – and utilize clean, highly fuel-efficient vehicles and low-carbon fuels.
• Transportation supports vibrant communities and a growing local economy rather than contributing to neighborhood blight and noise pollution.
• Our transportation funding system reflects the full costs and benefits of using Oregon’s transportation system and reinforces the relationship between user fees and the uses of revenues.

Principles to Guide Us to a 21st Century Transportation System

Prevent harm to human health and the environment: The transportation sector is responsible for nearly 40% of Oregon’s greenhouse gas emissions. We must incorporate global warming impacts into transportation planning decisions by applying leastcarbon-cost planning to all transportation investments. We must also mitigate transportation’s impacts on air quality, water quality and water hydrology. To achieve this, we must not only support cleaner, more fuel-efficient vehicles, lower-carbon fuels, and green transportation infrastructure, but also price transportation accurately, provide environmentally friendly transportation alternatives for both people and freight,
and, as mentioned next, grow smart.

Grow smart: Transportation affects land use, and land use affects transportation. The two are inextricably linked. We must ensure that land use decisions support transportation objectives and vice versa.

Support the transportation needs of all Oregonians: We must meet the transportation needs not only of those with physical and financial resources, but also the needs of our youth, our elderly, our disabled, and our low-income populations.

Preserve transportation assets: Just as a homeowner fixes his or her roof before building a new addition on the house, we should maintain and preserve our existing transportation assets.

Make efficient and effective investments: We should fund the most effective and efficient improvements in a given situation, regardless of mode or jurisdiction.

Manage demand: We can increase the capacity of existing transportation infrastructure through effective transportation demand management strategies.

Improve safety: We must implement effective strategies to keep people safe as they travel and respond quickly to one of the major causes of congestion – crashes, breakdowns and other random incidents on our roads.

Raise adequate revenue and establish a fair, flexible funding system: We must raise enough money to meet multiple transportation needs. The funding system should reflect the full costs and benefits of using the transportation system. It must be also be flexible enough to fund the most appropriate solutions, including transportation demand management projects. (Flexible funding is currently undermined by the constitutional restriction on vehicle-related fees.)

Funding a 21st Century Transportation System

In 2002, OEC released a report, “Goodbye Gridlock: Improving the Way Oregon Funds Transportation,” which suggests how to make Oregon’s transportation system more efficient, affordable and environmentally sound by changing how Oregonians pay for transportation. Goodbye Gridlock also recommends investing transportation dollars in cost-effective transportation solutions that provide Oregonians with affordable and convenient travel choices.

People make choices every day – about when to travel, how to travel, even what kind of car to buy – without the benefit of clear price signals. For example, highways are jammed during peak periods because drivers pay the same out-of-pocket cost whether they travel at rush hour, noon or midnight. Likewise, drivers have little incentive to purchase fuel-efficient cars because the gas tax doesn’t capture each vehicle’s contribution to global warming.

One of the keys to a more efficient and environmentally benign transportation system is to start getting the price right. In economic terms, we must “internalize” the “external” costs of driving. The right price communicates to drivers the actual costs they impose on society and encourages drivers to use their autos wisely. The transportation finance recommendations outlined below are described in greater detail in Goodbye Gridlock at www.oeconline.org/publications/pubs-reports.

• Cover road maintenance and operations through a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) fee on light vehicles, a weight mile tax on heavy vehicles, and a studded tire fee;
• Relieve congestion and reduce unnecessary road building through peak period pricing;
• Pay for necessary road modernization through tolls (including peak period pricing) and traffic impact fees, as well as the base VMT fee and weight mile tax;
• Make polluting vehicles pay by incorporating the global warming and air pollution characteristics of each vehicle into the VMT fee, charging a tire disposal fee, and levying a hazardous substance fee on motor oil;
• Tax employee and customer parking spaces to discourage automobile-dependent development;
• Reduce “one-size-fits-all” taxes, such as registration fees;
• Give drivers more control over the fixed costs of automobile use (like auto insurance); and
• Flex some of these revenues and secure additional funding to invest in transportation alternatives.