Search Results
-
Peak Gas Hits Oregon
We hate to say we told you so…wait, strike that, we actually kinda like it: “ODOT says road projects may need to be cut.” Oregon transportation officials say they may have to scale back plans for highway work because revenue from road users is coming in more slowly than expected. Cash-strapped drivers are using less gasoline, so they’re also paying less in gas taxes—and that means Oregon stands to lose...Read more » -
Should We Trust Toll Revenue Forecasts?
Hey gang! We’ve got a new report out today: a literature review on the accuracy of tolling revenue forecasts. In a nutshell, both national and international experience shows that official tolling forecasts tend to overestimate real-world toll road revenue—particularly where drivers can choose alternative, toll-free routes. If the research holds true for our part of the world, there could be lots of implications for highway finance. Read on for more… It...Read more » -
A Sneak Peak?
I’ve been tracking gasoline consumption in the Northwest for over a decade now. But for most of that time I’ve been focused on the year-to-year ticks: a mini-surge in 2002 and 2003, a dip in 2008 when oil prices spiked, a rebound the following year when prices fell. But the year-to-year fluctuations concealed a much bigger and more interesting story: gasoline consumption in Washington and Oregon has remained essentially flat...Read more » -
Unchain Bike Sharing
Imagine for a moment that cities around the world are rolling out fleets of magic carpets and that those carpets are having truly wizardly effects: improved public health and safety, reduced traffic congestion and carbon emissions, and reduced dependence on foreign oil. City dwellers can check them out or drop them off at stations everywhere, and they are free to use for up to 30 minutes. After that, they cost...Read more » -
Freeing Taxis
Update 8/11: I have an addendum to this post published here. Also, the chart was altered to reflect a slightly higher number for Vancouver. What if the Northwest’s cities legally capped the number of pizza delivery cars? What if, despite growing urban population and disposable incomes, our Pizza Delivery Oversight Boards had scarcely issued new delivery licenses since 1975? Pizza delivery would be expensive and slow; citizens would rise up...Read more » -
Washington’s 20 Billion Mile Diet
According to the most recent forecasts from the Washington State Office of Financial Management, drivers in Washington state will rack up about 65 billion miles on the highways in 2031. Now, I have no idea if that number is anywhere close to accurate. Nobody does. But what I DO know is that that number is over 21 billion miles lower than the forecast that OFM made 3 years ago, and...Read more » -
Oil Subsidies and the US Debt
Editor’s note: This post was written by Japhet Koteen, a community builder, urbanist, and real estate developer in Seattle. He wrote this post as part of a project for Taxpayers for Common Sense. It’s not the trillions elected leaders are looking for today in Washington, DC, but I know where they can find $77 billion: outdated subsidies to the oil and gas industries. Oil and gas are two of the...Read more » -
Decriminalize Green, Affordable Car Insurance
Imagine if state law made it difficult for pizza joints to sell by the slice. You’d have to buy and eat a lot of pizza when you got a hankering. Either that, or you’d have to give up pizza entirely. By-the-slice pizza lets light eaters save money. The car insurance market today is like an alternate reality where no pizza joints sell by the slice. You have to buy a...Read more » -
The Shareable Food Movement Meets the Law
The Health Department didn’t show up when I made dinner for my neighbors last night. Fortunately, our health and safety laws don’t usually dictate how we prepare food in our personal and private realms. But humans have a natural tendency, an urge to feed each other, and the shareable food movement is taking that to new levels—levels that bring up some legal curiosities.Read more » -
Is The Tunnel Worse Than Nothing?
A few months back, the transportation consulting firm NelsonNygaard released a fascinating report that looked at what might happen to downtown Seattle traffic patterns if the state builds a tunnel through downtown, while imposing a steep toll on drivers who choose to take it. (We’ve already written about that report once before.) Below, for your viewing pleasure, is the most important image from that report. Click it to see a...Read more »