When Reality Sets In...
Concepts can become a scary reality...
Over the last month the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has been on rocky footing. Toll funding has been curtailed until January of 2026, a forecast of lost gas tax revenue is looming and programs that have been started do not have financing. Add to this ODOT’s DMV data breach, thru third party provider MOVEit, and well, if this were a household it would be living on the streets.
As of this past week, ODOT has a new 3rd party provider… Ferrovial. They will be collecting information and monies from us, for a nice fee, in order to get ODOT some funding. Oh, and this company resides in Europe.
In Short
Article 1 - OReGo, the pilot Vehicle Mile Tax program that has been around since 2015, is no longer a pilot program. Scott Boardman, the Innovative Programs Policy Adviser with OReGO, says the program is fully operational and for now, voluntary.
This is one of the funding mechanisms mentioned in the Oregon Transportation Plan in addition to tolling, the gas tax, Cordon Pricing etc…
According to this article, “Cintra will also support ODOT’s Connected Vehicle Ecosystem (CVE), itself, an outgrowth of the state’s intelligent transportation system (ITS).
Article 2 - Ferrovial, (Madrid, Spain, now relocated in the Netherlands in order to do business here) is the “Infrastructure giant” that will handle Cintra’s NextMove and collect information and funds for the OReGo program mentioned above. They also collect toll monies as Texas has contributed heavily to their $125 million dollar profits… this in just the first half of 2023.
Article 3 - Sometimes it is difficult to make stuff up… but when reality becomes something you could never imagine… well…
In this public Twitter video, a Portlander shows what the Portland Bureau of Transportation has been creating. It is, from our perspective, a recipe for disaster. In a city that has mounting traffic fatalities (vehicle vs. human) we can not imagine how this plan passed the common sense test.
Weekly Articles
OReGo... no longer a pilot program (you will have to click the page link)
Thanks for highlighting these articles. From article 1:
"NextMove technology is capable of managing...systems that tap right into the in-vehicle telematics, where the car is logging and reporting mileage back to the state’s account managers."
Big brother anyone?