Congestion costs Oregonians $1.7 billion

Daily Journal of Commerce (Portland, OR), Mar 23, 2007 by Libby Tucker

Failure to invest in transportation could lead to $1.7 billion in lost income and 16,000 lost jobs in Oregon over the next 20 years, according to a new study released yesterday by the Portland Business Alliance and the Oregon Business Council.

The analysis, prepared by the Economic Development Research Group in Boston, compared current transportation funding levels to an improved scenario of additional funding to calculate the potential economic impacts of increased highway congestion in the state.

The new study widens the scope of the original cost of congestion study, released by the regional government Metro in December, which found that failure to relieve traffic congestion in the Portland metro area will cost the region 6,500 jobs and $844 million in lost commerce by 2025.

Traffic congestion isn't limited to the Portland region. At the current level of transportation funding, according to the new study, Oregonians will spend an additional 1 million hours in their vehicles by 2025 due to increased traffic, limited road capacity and impacting tourism and recreational activities.

"There is growing congestion in other areas of the Willamette Valley and in Bend," Bernie Bottomly, vice president of government affairs for the Portland Business Alliance, said. "And there is an impact on businesses outside the Portland area that have to get their freight through Portland."

The business alliance plans to take the new study to the House Committee on Transportation next week to make its case for an additional $300 million to $350 million in state transportation funding. The Alliance also will push for a statewide transportation planning model that relies on economic indicators to determine a project's return on investment, Bottomly said.

"The (statewide) cost of congestion is pointing out the importance of dealing with this in the Portland area for the rest of the state," Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder said. "The whole rest of the state is dependent on getting their goods in and out of Portland. (The study) makes it real for the non-Portland-area people."