In this issue

• Are you on the road again? Take a minute to let us know. 
• Tell us: What problems could tolls on I-5 and I-205 help address?
• Get involved this summer. 
• Moving equity and mobility strategies forward. 

Are you on the road again? Take a minute to let us know. 

On the road again … or not just yet? We’re launching a weekly series of one-minute polls to hear from you about using I-205 and I-5. Each week we’ll ask different questions – follow us on social media to have your voice heard. Click to share your experience on I-205 and I-5 over the past year.

Tell us: What problems could tolls on I-5 and I-205 help address?

The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) understands that crowded highways are a problem. Traffic delay on the highway can lead to gridlock in local communities, and it is negatively impacting our climate, safety, and health. We need a new approach. 

For the Oregon Toll program, ODOT has two toll projects underway – the I-205 Toll Project and the Regional Mobility Pricing Project – to address traffic on I-205 and I-5 in a way that is equitable and addresses climate change and safety. While separate projects, they inform each other.

The Regional Mobility Pricing Project plans to use tolls that vary throughout the day. Toll prices will be higher at peak traffic times, a concept known as “congestion pricing.” You will know the toll rate before you get on the highway.

Congestion pricing will help to manage traffic and raise money for investments that improve travel. This project will plan for tolls on I-5 and I-205 from the Columbia River to Boone Bridge – as shown in the map below. We’re taking a regional approach based on community concerns about the effectiveness of congestion pricing on shorter segments of I-5 and I-205.

The next steps for the Regional Mobility Pricing Project include studying:

• Toll options and start/end points of the tolled area.
• Effects to communities of drivers using neighborhood roads to avoid paying a toll.
• Transit service to give travelers an alternative to paying a toll.
• Equity and mobility strategies so people who have been historically underserved receive travel benefits.

To design a successful project, we need your help crafting a “Problem Statement” that will help guide our future work. Read more and share your thoughts.

• Draft Problem Statement
• Email the team OregonTolling@odot.state.or.us. Please put “problem statement” in the subject line.

Get involved this summer!

We want to continue to hear from you as we look at ways to address congestion, equity and climate change. 

Starting this week, we will use social media for a series of quick surveys, with different questions each week through July. We want to learn about your travel, thoughts on transportation problems and priorities, and what you would like to see from the toll program. Check out our social media channels and follow us so that you can participate in the surveys. Your input will help the ODOT team develop a project that will benefit the region for generations to come. 

Stay connected. 

Please follow along with us to receive updates on the Regional Mobility Pricing Project and the I-205 Toll Project and tell us what’s on your mind.

• Twitter:
• Urban Mobility Office on Twitter (new!)
• ODOT Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• YouTube

Moving equity and mobility strategies forward

Since the beginning of our work, many of you expressed the need to address the following factors to make this an equitable, successful toll program:

• Transit and Multimodal: Improve public transportation and other travel options.
• Neighborhood health and safety: Minimize or lessen impacts to neighborhoods near toll roads.
• Affordability and environmental justice: Consider impacts to people experiencing low incomes or who are underserved.

The Equity and Mobility Advisory Committee is studying ways to advance equity in these areas. The committee will share their findings with the Oregon Transportation Commission. Over the next five months, please follow along and participate in this important process. Committee meetings are the last Wednesday of each month. You can find links for meetings and recordings of previous meetings here. Submit written comments at any time to the committee by emailing Oregontolling@odot.state.or.us

Tolls, transit and multimodal investment 

In April and May, the Equity and Mobility Advisory Committee discussed transit and multimodal strategies to be implemented with a toll program.  The committee’s preferred actions included:

• Exempting public transit vehicles and registered vanpools and carpools from paying tolls.
• Creating an integrated and easy-to-use fare system coordinated between Oregon and Washington, as well as across different types of mobility (for example, bike, scooter, carpooling, car sharing).
• Pursuing a regional vision for bus-on-shoulder service with connections to local mobility hubs.

Read the draft Transit and Multimodal policy and strategy options.

Tolls and key neighborhood issues 

This summer, the committee will discuss strategies to:

• Address effects from drivers using local streets to avoid tolls.
• Minimize impacts on people experiencing low incomes.

The Equity and Mobility Advisory committee’s Game Plan below shows each of these topics.  It also identifies how the committee’s work and recommendations will be shared with the Oregon Transportation Commission and toll projects.

Next steps

• Upcoming Equity Mobility Advisory Committee meeting: The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, July 28, at 3:30 p.m. Visit the Committee's webpage for meeting details.

For more information and to sign up for email updates, please check out the project website or email the project team.

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The information in this document, and the public and agency input received, may be adopted or incorporated by reference into a future environmental review process to meet the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act.