Lars Larson: ODOT plans to drive us into poverty with their tolls

By Lars Larson,
NW and national radio host,

If you don’t already hate the idea of tolling freeways, some outrageous new information might have you driving right off the road.

Telling commuters they must pay a toll to drive on roads they already paid for is bad enough.

ODOT, the state agency with the 3 billion dollar annual budget that hasn’t built a new freeway in decades, has in mind to charge tolls high enough it sidelines some drivers.

Now, Dan Lacy at Oregon Tolling updates has discovered what it costs to collect one dollar in freeway tolls: The answer, 85 cents.

That’s right.  ODOT plans to strip tens of millions of dollars out of your pockets with the aim of curing congestion by economically driving the poor into a ditch.

Estimates say a commute from Wilsonville to Vancouver could cost 15 bucks.

But the costs of collecting those tolls, even using cameras and computers, will cost 85 cents of every dollar.

That’s why ODOT only expects to NET 16 to 25 million dollars a year…adding less than one percent to its yearly budget.

But it will keep a lot of citizens off the road.

And you laughed when I told you decades ago greenies are waging a war on the car.