The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) recently launched a campaign designed to educate residents on the state’s transportation funding problem and how to solve it.
Keep Oregon Connected will host community events through 2020, beginning this month at the Oregon State Fair.
“Oregon has about 74,000 miles of roads and more than 8,000 bridges, connecting residents and visitors to their favorite places,” Travis Brouwer, ODOT”s assistant director, said. “However, most people who drive those highways and crossings don’t pause to think about their future maintenance and preservation.”
Oregon charges a gas tax to support the majority of transportation projects. In 2015, ODOT launched OReGO, a road charge program. The program charges motorists 1.7 cents per mile driven.
State law offers motorists a choice of technologies and services to use to report miles driven. Motorists receive a regular statement with their road charges along with a fuel tax credit for any fuel tax paid at the pump.
In 2001, the Oregon Legislature established a task force to investigate alternatives to the traditional gas tax. ODOT conducted pilot programs in 2007 and 2013 at the task force’s direction to test a per-mile charging system.
ODOT is leading a coalition to investigate how the OReGO system could operate across state lines.