Month: October 2022
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The Week Observed, October 28, 2022
What City Observatory did this week A toll policy primer for Oregon. The Oregon Department of Transportation is proposing to finance billions in future road expansions with tolling. While we’re enamored of road pricing as a way to better manage our transportation system, the movement to raise moeny with tolls, and in particular by borrowing…
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Risky Bridges: Deja vu all over again
Needed: An independent review of technical mistakes that could cost billions The proposed multi-billion dollar Interstate Bridge Replacement is shaping up a repeat of the Columbia River Crossing (CRC) fiasco because the two states haven’t done anything to independently verify the work of their staff. Oregon DOT and WSDOT are repeating all the key mistakes…
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A Toll Policy Primer for Oregon
Oregon doesn’t have tolls on any of its major roads or bridges. But faced with stagnant gas tax revenues, and with an appetite for huge freeway expansion projects, the Oregon Department of Transportation has committed itself to using tolls to generate billions of dollars in revenue. And let’s be clear, as economists, we support the…
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The Week Observed, October 21, 2022
What City Observatory did this week Using phony safety claims to sell a billion dollar freeway widening. This past week, Sarah Pliner, a promising young Portland chef was killed when she and her bike were crushed by a turning truck at SE Powell Boulevard and 26th Avenue. This intersection is an Oregon Department of Transportation…
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ODOT’s safety lie is back, bigger than ever
Oregon DOT is using phony claims about safety to sell a $1.45 billion freeway widening project People are regularly being killed on ODOT roadways and the agency claims that it lacks the resources to fix these problems Meanwhile, it proposes to spend billions of dollars widening freeways where virtually no one is killed or injured…
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The Week Observed, October 14, 2022
What City Observatory did this week Two of the three candidates for Oregon Governor are Climate Deniers. Oregon will elect a new Governor next month, and two of the three candidates for the job insist on repeating the discredited myth that greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by widening freeways so that people don’t spend…
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Two out of three candidates for Oregon Governor are climate denialists
The Republican and Independent candidates for Oregon Governor are happy to spout a convenient myth that we can fight climate change by widening highways. That myth has been completely disproven: wider roads encourage more driving and more greenhouse gases Advocating for more and wider roads is climate change denial Oregon has been one of the…