NEWS
Feb 2022: "Oregon elected officials make plays for how to spend federal transportation dollars"
A flood of federal transportation and infrastructure dollars has not yet trickled down to the Oregon Department of Transportation, but dozens of elected officials and residents on Thursday stated their case for how the state should use the $1.2 billion of federal funds... Read more
March 2022: OTC Joint Press Release
The Oregon Transportation Commission (OTC) met today to decide how to spend $412 million in “flexible funds” from the federal government’s Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act. The decision does not deliver on the Oregon Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) stated goals or respond to the overwhelming public demand for smarter transportation investment... Read more
Feb 2022: "Oregonians testify their support of bike, pedestrian, and public transportation spending"
Oregon is slated to get millions of dollars from President Joe Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Nearly two-dozen people on Thursday used the Oregon Transportation Commission’s public hearing to outline how they think the state should spend those funds... Read more
Feb 2022: "Investing in a better transportation future"
Oregon is receiving more than a billion dollars from the federal government through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This money will be allocated to projects around the state by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), under the direction of the Oregon Transportation Commission (OTC)... Read more
Jan 2022: "ODOT and advocates lay our different plans for federal funding influx"
Oregon will receive about $1.2 billion total from IIJA. More than half is already dedicated to specific programs like bridges and EV charging infrastructure. The big lobbying effort will be over the $412 million that will be completely “flexible”, meaning it comes without legal constraints to be spent on “highways” or any other particular type of infrastructure... Read more
Jan 2022: "New plan and federal funding could be opportunity for statewide transportation reform"
As the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) seeks to update the plan that will guide the state’s transportation priorities for the next 25 years, climate activists see an opportunity to push for an overhaul of the current system that will allow the state to reach its climate goals... Read more
Nov 2021: "Oregon will fail its climate goals if ODOT acts on big freeway projects, environmentalists say"
Robin Sack, a sophomore at Grant High School, is one of the hundreds of Oregon teenagers who spent the past eight months staging climate demonstrations at the Portland headquarters of the Oregon Department of Transportation.... Read more
Nov 2021: "What could we do with a billion dollars?"
Now that Congress has passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, more than a billion dollars will be coming to Oregon for transportation..... Read more
March 2021: "Why does congestion pricing matter?"
You may have paid a road toll when traveling outside of Oregon, but what is congestion pricing? Most people have never heard of it, or maybe have a vague idea of what it is. At OEC, we believe that congestion pricing–different from tolling–is the best tool to help our transportation system become more efficient, healthy and sustainable... Read more
Dec 2020: "Advocates hold commissioners' feet to the fire"
The Oregon Transportation Commission (OTC) voted last week to increase funding for more equitable, climate-smart transportation options in Oregon. The decision to increase “Non-Highway” transportation projects in the 2024-2027 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) is a big win for climate and just transportation advocates, but... Read more
August 2020: "Clean trucks for justice"
While commuters have noted a decrease in congestion, cargo or heavy truck volumes have remained steady and have actually increased at points during the pandemic. This is of no surprise to residents living next to heavily trafficked truck corridors such as Portland’s Cully neighborhood, whose community organizations such as Verde and Living Cully have been organizing and advocating for community benefits such as air quality improvement... Read more
June 2020: "EQUITY: our first milepost on the road to a clean transportation system"
We are reaching out at a time that we are all called to take action and stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. To truly ensure a habitable and thriving world for everyone and future generations, we must be holistic in our approach and transform our goals to encompass the intersectionality of the racial justice movement and other movements for equity and justice... Read more
March 2022: "$412 million in federal funding shouldn't focus on freeways, transportation commission says"
A press release from ODOT last week about a meeting of the Oregon Transportation Commission raised eyebrows here at BikePortland headquarters. “There was consensus that funding for highway expansion projects should not be the priority of this flexible funding,”... Read more
March 2022: Open letter to the OTC
When you sit in traffic, do you ever wonder if there is a more efficient means of transportation? As you may know, the seemingly simple solution of widening the roadway does not reduce traffic congestion. Instead studies show the opposite is true. Excessive investment in widening roadways fails to alleviate traffic and ultimately exacerbates issues, like safety and pollution, that harm our communities. To relieve congestion while supporting climate and equity... Read more
