Email, Comment Form and Voicemails
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Portland Area Value Pricing Feasibility Analysis Summer 2018 Community Engagement Summary Report VERBATIM COMMENTS: EMAIL, COMMENT FORM AND VOICEMAILS The following table includes comments submitted via email, online comment form, in writing at PAC meeting #6 and the special OTC meeting on July 12, or via voicemail. All information submitted as part of the comment (including the subject line, if provided) is presented below exactly as submitted. No grammatical or spelling edits have been made. Email addresses, phone numbers and personal addresses have been removed for privacy. In addition to email, voicemail and in-person events, members of the public could submit comments through three different online comment forms. Two of these forms included a subject line field, while the third did not. Date Communication Contacts Source 06/20 The West Linn/Wilsonville area will be negatively impacted by the new tolling idea. Danny Comment With no alternative route available for I-205, we WILL see hundreds if not thousands of Schreiber form cars diverted to using our neighborhood streets to avoid the toll. Large parts of West Linn lack any options for public transit, especially buses or trains, so we lack alternative ways for travel. Many of our streets have no lanes for bikes either, so those are not options for safety. Finally, the biggest negative impact will be on the many families with financial difficulties since they will not be able to afford these tolls. According to many studies, at least 1/3 of the funds raised by the tolls will go to the collection of the tolls themselves. There are other options that have less negative impacts. Increase vehicle registration fees. Raise gas taxes. Encourage car pooling. Consider heavy rail options or water taxis for commuters. Increasing gas taxes is a much more direct way to raise funds and they MUST be voter approved, so there is accountability for increased taxes. 06/20 I live in west linn and am absolutely apposed to this. It will be a huge cost to manage Richard Comment and unfair for the poor. We all deserve free access to the roads. Government can Mooney form barely build a road efficiently and the bureaucracy to manage this crazy plan creates cost and efficiency that we will end up paying. There is plenty of space to add lanes, and make them HOV. Lets build them first we need anyway. I wish we spent the $$ on this crazy plan to just build & fix roads... 06/20 ODOT wastes millions look at the resurfacing of 205 Stafford road to bridge last year Neil Comment now we are going to redo and wSte millions more. No WY tolling IS acceptable. Toll Loebner form bikes mass transit riders and vehicles with out of state plates ND get fiscally responsible 06/20 Hello, I live in West Linn and I strongly oppose tolls on the freeways. The very few side Curt Comment roads that exist are already grid locked during the morning and afternoon commutes. Keller form Tolls would force more people to those streets and make our area completely unlivable. Please do not vote for tolls on our freeways. 06/20 I believe this will make seniors or fixed income people's lives more difficult. We will be Patricia Comment forced to drive on back streets to avoid tolls. Neighborhoods will become more Digby form congested. 06/20 This is the most ubsurd idea Ove ever been subjected to. I am a resident of West Linn Steve Comment and should value pricing be introduced I will be forced to face unnecessary traffic Vaughn form along roadways in West Linn that were not designed to handle the traffic. Double the size of Rosemont making it an arterial and improve all segments of Hwy 43 to two lanes before you destroy the primary travel route of 205 for the residents. and call the "value pricing" what it is, a luxury tax. Those with the means will save time while those who have no choice but to work the hours our employers need is will spend additional time waiting in traffic. The urban growth boundary and urban densification has not received the appropriate planning and the people are now being forced to pay for the roads we already paid for! Instead of subsidising the crime train and not enforcing payments use the funds paid by motorists on the roadways we use every day! Do not toll 205 or exempt those of us forced to use the route. Oregon Department of Transportation Page | 1 06/21 I live with my family in the Overlook triangle neighborhood in North Portland. With the Kimberly Comment proposed "value" or "congestion" pricing, I am concerned that the neighborhoods in Pray form N/NE PDX will experience a significant increase in diversion traffic as Washington (WA) residents attempt to bypass the tolling regimes. For N/S surface streets, such as MLK Blvd, N Interstate Ave, and N Greeley, we are already seeing WA drivers during peak AM/PM commute times using surface streets to bypass freeway congestion. This causes further congestion in neighborhoods and lowers quality of life during these hours of the day, as it is increasingly difficult to navigate surface streets as a driver, cyclist, or pedestrian. Clark County residents several times voted down the proposal for a light rail connection across the river and clog our streets without paying a price. I'm tired of subsidizing WA residents who choose to work in Oregon with longer commute times, clogged neighborhood streets, and poor air quality. However, I would certainly pay extra to divert WA drivers out of our neighborhoods and keep them on the freeway where they belong. 06/21 This a bad idea. Our neighborhoods in West Linn are already so congested with drivers Kathy Comment getting off 205 to avoid traffic I can't imagine what a toll would do. I have a hard Stevenso form time getting out of my driveway on Johnson Road now and it is really bad trying to n get on Stafford from Johnson. A toll from Stafford to the bridge would make a bad situation worse. It is also very unfair to poor working people who wouldn't be able to afford a toll just to get to work while wealthier people will just have yet another advantage. This is discrimination. Please don't say use public transportation. It's virtually non-existent out. I have tried to use it and it takes 3 to 4 times longer to get anywhere. This is a very bad idea for the people who live in West Linn. 06/21 I don't even know where to begin on this subject, and whoever the genius that came David Comment up with this dumb idea. I think it's totally unfair to the residents of West Linn in both Winters form taxation and livability. You will only push drivers off 205 and onto side roads. Send one of your brilliant PAC members to the Willamette Falls Drive in old town Willamette any weekday after 3pm to see how bad it is now. You have two BILLION dollars to be spent on 12 miles of lightrail track that only serves a few while you punish the many. I am in total opposition to this taxation plan. In the simplest of understandable terms, this is total BS. There you go, simple thoughts from a simple guy... 06/21 Subject: 205 toll Sherron Comment Frost form Do not put a toll on 205!!!! We already paid for the road with our txaes. West linn has so much traffic already. We will vote eveyone out the next election if this happens. 06/21 Subject: Tolls on i-5 and 205 Gail Comment Coleman form This is actually crazy we have had these highways for years. Build a new highway figure it out and toll and tax people that way like other large cities in the US. So lets punish the taxpayers who have dealt with this congestion for years because no one had the mindset to do something about this years ago. Where will that money go that you will take from those trying to make ends meet going to and from work? Please can Oregon get anything right for once this native Oregonian is sick of thinking to solve anything is to take from what has already been paid for for years. Get it figured out, but this is a huge mistake. 06/21 Subject: Freeway tolling Marilyn Comment Whygle form NO THANK YOU!!!! It is NOT the Oregon Way! We are NOT East Coast! 06/21 Subject: Tolling Lowell Comment McMurra form "value (congestion) pricing", Tolling the two main interstate arteries in the Portland / y Vancouver area, would leave little to no options for drivers to take. In my opinion, Oregon DOT should utilize revenue from the PUC Tax already being collected. Increasing licensing fees on motor vehicles is also another easy solution even if it is based on specific counties, so the entire state is not impacted by metro congestion. In Seattle Tolling at different times of day and specific sections of road proved to be problematic, Express Lanes were so expensive, the lanes were left unused, adding to increased congestion on remaining lanes. I would feel better if there were some benefit related to proposed Tolls. As an example, replacing the I-5 Bridge is long over due. If a new bridge were in place, I would not be opposed to paying to use it. Replacing the I-5 Bridge has been postponed, and indecisive for so long, I feel that the Federal DOT, WADOT & ODOT all should be ashamed by failing to act.