In an interesting article in last week’s Oregonian, only 36% of poll respondents (and 32% of Clark County respondents) say they are willing to pay $2 to $3 in tolls for a new bridge over the Columbia River.
That’s interesting, both in terms of what it implies for how people value their time (economists struggle with how to value time savings in new transportation projects), and in terms of what it means for the proposed project. In terms of time-value, 64% percent — almost two-thirds — of respondents are apparently more or equally willing to spend time in slow-moving traffic than to open their wallets (not that the project will solve the traffic congestion — but I digress).
Sadly for most economists, variable tolling (where the charge varies based on traffic counts) is also panned by respondents by a two-to-one margin.
The project is expected to be enormously expensive, and tolls have long been viewed as a key component in the funding mix. This isn’t a death-knell, but it should be a wake-up call to those who advocate for particular plans without a serious plan about how to fund them.
I think the Oregonian missed the key part of the story, instead focusing on attitudes towards light rail (in concept, without a funding mechanism identified), but I’m sure our regional leaders are thinking through the implications of the tolling data.
There’s a lot of different ways to read the poll, and information in there that could bolster most any argument. But at the core, people seem to want more, but don’t want to pay for it. Surprise, surprise.
Read the poll results for yourself at portlandtransport.com. Thanks, Chris!
