That report also highlighted an unintended consequence: Federal and state gas tax revenues, which pay for most highway and street projects, would disappear. A 2019 Legislative Revenue Office forecast showed the legislation would eliminate 99 percent of oil-powered vehicles by 2050. The cap-and-trade legislation Power and her legislative colleagues have been pushing in Salem would gradually raise the price of fossil fuels so high that motorists would be forced to switch to electric vehicles. "At some point, we have to break the connection." "Funding transportation based on fossil fuel has always been problematic," Smith says. Without vehicles rolling, the agencies run out of money.Ĭhris Smith, a longtime Portland transportation activist who's running for the Metro Council, says that should be a wake-up call. (Henry Cromett)įewer cars on the road eases traffic and improves air quality, but it has a downside: City and state transportation departments are dependent on gas taxes and road-user fees. "We could make the congestion problem go away, even when things get back to normal, by managing demand."Ī drive-thru COVID-19 testing center next to Interstate 84. But Cortright says he hopes policymakers pay close attention to what this unplanned experiment has shown us about traffic flows. When the state eventually reopens for business, many of the environmental benefits will be lost. Cortright advocates congestion pricing to prompt such behavior. To replicate such results in normal times would mean encouraging people to commute by other means and take nonessential trips during off hours. It has also displayed what could happen if some transportation advocates like Cortright got their way and tolls were placed on Portland highways steep enough to cut into rush-hour traffic.
The pandemic has brought illness, death, job losses, and disruptions unparalleled in most of our lives. Karin Power (D-Milwaukie), a co-sponsor of the controversial carbon reduction bill stuck in Salem, "but it's not sustainable." "The emissions reductions we're seeing in Oregon and around the world are staggering," says state Rep. That's mostly because COVID-19 is keeping vehicles off the roads: The 40 percent decrease in traffic from a year ago means vehicle-generated pollution is down about the same amount, according to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. Somehow, it's appropriate that today-the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, a landmark in the environmental movement-our air is cleaner than it's been in a long time.
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