In 1971, the Oregon Legislature passed ORS 366.514, better known as “the Bike Bill,” which required that 1% of all funds for any highway project be spent on bicycle and pedestrian paths. Now, the bill could be getting an upgrade – if money can be found to go from 1% to 5% at a time when road construction funds are becoming hard to come by.
50 years ago, bicycles were much less common than they are now, and automobiles all ran on gasoline – not diesel, not electricity: gasoline, which was taxed at the pump to pay for all road repair and construction. In the much-altered landscape of the 21st Century, backers of Senate Bill 395, such as Sen. Floyd Prozanski of Eugene, Ashton Simson of Oregon Walks, and Portlander Sarah Iannarone, hope to create a new Bicycle Bill.
Iannarone observed that “thousands of Oregon residents and communities around the state commute by bike. Cumulatively, Oregon has the highest bicycle commuting to work rate in the nation.” Her Street Trust hopes to build upon that base.
As with so many other issues, race has a role in this one. Simpson pointed out to OPB, “Investing in walking and biking is also a critical way to advance equity goals as we know BIPOC and immigrant refugee communities are less likely to be able to afford personal vehicles and are more dependent on walking to access public transit, shops, or schools.”
SB395 would also change the makeup of the Oregon Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, adding representatives of bicycle dealers, environmentalist groups and local governments.
Periodically, the Portland Bureau of Transportation issues a Traffic Crash Report as part of its participation in the nationwide Vision Zero program. According to their 2020 report, Portland had the highest number of traffic deaths since 1996: 54 people in total, 23 of them pedestrians or bicyclists, the majority in low-income communities. Deaths dropped after Governor Brown’s stay-at-home orders were issued in March, but increased rapidly as businesses reopened in May and June of 2020.
The bill faces opposition from powerful interests, including the Oregon Trucking Associations (OTA) and AAA Oregon-Idaho, both of which object to all road costs being borne by taxes on vehicle fuels.
In a public hearing on SB395, OTA lobbyist Mark Gibson said they were grateful for House Bill 2017, which passed four years ago and funds road construction with a tax on bicycles that sell for more than $200, said this by itself was not enough. “Senate Bill 395 proposes to increase the minimum amount spent on bicycle and pedestrian facilities from one to five percent without any increase in taxes to fund additional expenditures.”
Marie Dodds of AAA Oregon-Idaho said at the hearing that road maintenance funding was already inadequate, and SB395 would cut into that funding even more. “The acute reduction of revenues into the highway trust fund due to COVID-19 and wildfires, combined with chronic projections of reduced revenue over time into the fund from Oregon’s current system were relying on fuel taxes — make the work of this committee to look at alternative ways to generate revenue critically important.”
With the number of vehicles on the road which do not use gasoline at all increasing, the state is considering alternative funding measures, such as a milage tax based on miles driven per year, but a clear solution is not yet in sight.
By John M. Burt
Do you have a story for The Advocate? Email editor@corvallisadvocate.com