A “Right to Vote” Issue …

A letter from a member of our leadership team to one of our many supporters … it’s a great read to help you understand and share our goals.

Thank you Amy, and many of us think this IP-41 Initiative Petition is OK, in that it was effectively already co-written by Oregon’s State Legislative Counsel.

I think when it gets submitted to the Secretary of State with 1,500 good signatures, it will get a through review, including the Attorney General’s approval of a ballot title.

This is simply a “Right to Vote” issue, to determine if Tolling can or should be allowed without the majority approval of an area wide vote of the regional people, where ODOT or any other Regional or State of Oregon entity, who wants to implement Tolling, must ask the Voters, for their approval.  This just forces those who want to implement Tolling to fully explain what they want to do and why and how they want of implement Tolling or Congestion Pricing.  This does not stop Tolling, it just makes it a requirement to gain Majority Approval at the ballot box, to do it.

For me this is where it will gets the final review and go ahead, for the necessary 150,000 state wide good signatures to make it on the ballot.

With the approval of this IP-41 Initiative Petition by the Voters, any entity wanting to implement Tolling or Congestion Pricing must present to the voters their justification and if it does not make sense or is determined to not be justified or within a benefit analysis it might fail to gain a necessary majority, of a “Vote of the People”, what is wrong with that?  

I just love this, and I think this is truly an Oregon Mindset, of how we do things and what I grew up with, and this is my opinion, as an Oregon raised and educated person, and I think this is the right thing to do.

One size does not fit all, and those of us in the Oregon City, West Linn, Gladstone and Canby will disproportionately get hit hard, with the associated costs that the proposed Tolling/Congestion Pricing will create in this area, on the people and our economy, how it disproportionately effects lower income-the working poor, reduces jobs, and in all of this steals from our future potential for greater Clackamas County.  Re-Routing – Diversion of vehicles historically happens, people will do crazy things and go out of their ways to just not pay a Toll.  In our case it will create massive diversion but with much greater implications, with only one bridge to get back and fourth across the Willamette River for approximately 50 miles, we basically do not have options, like in others areas.  This will create massive diversion – re-routing of vehicles and the impacts will become very problematic on Willamette Falls Drive and Borland Road.  These routes/roads seeing much greater traffic with marginal conditions that exist, and with the re-routing on to them, and all of the side streets, roads, highways, and bridges that are not designed to “Safely” handle much, much greater influx of diverted and re-routed traffic and people will die!!

The old and narrow Arch Oregon City – West Linn Bridge will see a quadrupling of incidents of travel on it and this will kill the Historic Downtown of Oregon City.  Businesses will go bankrupt and for no good reason, in my opinion.  State Highways 43 and Hwy 99E/McLoughlin Blvd will be brought to their knees with diversion and congestion and basically no-long functioning for the people that use and rely of them.  Regional freight mobility on those highways will become no-longer be passable for people and the businesses and as I see it, and there is NO Equity in making that happen too.

Most of Clackamas County is in a Transit wasteland, and there are few if any Multi-Mode Options or Opportunities that make sense and there is little or no probability of justification what could be done in  how to enhance the effected areas, in a cost to benefit analysis.  Topology restraints and just the lay of the land, make Tolling/Congestion Pricing just a stupid, and to me a not well thought out option for the proposed I-205 Corridor and I-205 Abernethy Bridge Tolling/Congestion Pricing with NO Equitable outcomes, coming from it.

Amy, how do you see this and why?  Where do you work and/or your partner works, shops and/or how do you do things that requires that you use a vehicle and how do you currently use this I-205 Corridor and Abernethy Bridge?  Can you bike or walk to the stories and bring your purchased items home?  Is the elimination of congestion in the I-205 Corridor important to you in how it will reduce Carbon Emission, that are much higher, when congestion exists.  The fact money exists in the State of Oregon to fully fund this I-205 improvement Project, do you think it is an essential project for those investment funds?  If Tolling were allowed, how would you like to see the excess revenues to be spent and are you in agreement with the recommendation of the “Equity and Advisory Committee” in how they want to invest our money in our region, does their one size fit all?   An example is MAX Light Rail Transit and in their recommendations, to where it funds the local share of creating a new MAX – LRT Line out to Tigard and Tualatin is this an appropriate investment ??
Sorry for any errors in grammar or word usage, or words left out as I am a highly dyslectic person, but as an analyst, I have opinions, that I believe need to be said.

Paul Edgar, Oregon City