Businesses, Metro address cost of traffic congestion in Portland

Daily Journal of Commerce (Portland, OR), Dec 5, 2005 by Libby Tucker

Failure to relieve traffic congestion in the Portland region's transportation system will cost the region 6,500 jobs and $844 million by 2025, says a new study by the Economic Development Research Group, a Boston-based consulting firm. A lack of capital improvement projects could also cost the region 2,000 to 3,000 construction jobs annually.

The study, sponsored by the Portland Business Alliance, the Port of Portland, Metro and the Oregon Department of Transportation, does not make planning or funding recommendations. Instead, it sets a framework for Metro's upcoming regional transportation plan, which will prioritize capital improvement projects for funding. Work on the new plan begins in 2006, with a final document due in 2008.

There is a looming (transportation) problem, and in some ways it might be a crisis, said Metro councilor Rex Burkholder at the Dec. 1 council meeting where the new study was presented. But in terms of how we respond, that is something we will be deciding over the next year and a half working with the public on our regional transportation plan.

The study analyzed transportation system demand and capacity and local business costs, operations and growth strategies to determine the cost of congestion to the Portland metropolitan region over the next 20 years.

The region's current $4 billion, 20-year capital improvement investment plan was compared to an idealistic, $10 billion plan that would incorporate all the projects on the region's long wish list. The analysis showed that additional strategic investments could return $2 for every additional dollar spent.

You can't build your way out of congestion, but you can certainly help, said Glen Weisbrod, president of the Economic Development Research Group and a national expert on traffic congestion. Maintaining the current $200 million a year level of funding could spell disaster for the region's ability to compete in the global economy, Weisbrod said.

Population is expected to grow by 50 percent in the region over the next 50 years, tripling the miles of congestion and lowering the average vehicle speed by 20 percent. That costs area businesses time and money and will likely result in job loss as existing businesses relocate to other metropolitan areas in order to remain competitive.

The Portland area business community has already been hurt by congestion. Intel Corp., which helped fund the study, has moved its shipment departure times from Portland International Airport up two hours due to peak hour congestion, for example. And OrePac has reported a 7 percent to 8 percent increase in inventories to mitigate for congestion delays.

Area businesses have responded to the impending crisis with unprecedented participation in transportation planning activities.

This is the first time the business community and Metro have come together in this way to jointly sponsor a study as important as this, said Sandra McDonough, president and CEO of the Portland Business Alliance. We're really saying let's step back and let's define the problem first, so we have a common framework for how we're going to solve it in the future. Not all projects are created equal in terms of economic value and this study sets up a way for us to work together looking at this package of potential transportation improvements.