Bob,

The calculation “one bus chews up the roads the roads equal to 22,000 cars” is directly from Sam’s office, not a figure I invented. Sam brought it up at yesterdays hearing, and I confirmed the number with Roland before I left City Hall. Other statistics aside, the points I have been making related to the Street Maintenance Fees residential charges are simple ones for the purpose of achieving tax equity.

All of us use roads differently in part because one vehicle size or type, and or one method of transport does NOT fit individual needs. Not everybody wears size 12 army boots. Would you be willing to charge for trips generated based on their level of importance? One example might be an unnecessary recreational bicycle trip would be charged at a much higher rate than a heavy truck making a delivery or a business person making a sales call traveling in is his/her own SUV with a load of samples. Another example would be TriMet charging a low fare for a trip to work or the doctor, and charging a much higher fare for an unnecessary trip to the theater. Yet this is exactly what is being proposed with the Street Maintenance Fee discount program, except it attempts to charge fees based on the vehicle used rather than the importance of the trip.

All people generate trips directly or indirectly; be it by motor vehicle, transit, bicycle or walking on sidewalks. All consumer goods are transported over roads at one time or another. Therefore, all households benefit from good roads and must be charged at an equal rate. The costs of motor vehicles are paid for by their individual users and owners while the extreme cost of transit vehicles and infrastructure continues to be paid for by the taxpayers. That requires all discount privileges and immunities (except for low income) be eliminated. I can not emphasize this enough: THE STREET MAINTENANCE FEE IS A USER TAX, NOT A SOCIALISTIC MEANS TO DICTATE HOW PEOPLE TRAVEL OR WHAT TYPE OF HOUSING THEY LIVE IN!!!

Furthermore, all the money raised from the Street Maintenance Fee ought to go only for street repair and maintenance, not for special privilege sugar daddy funds for additional bicycle and transit subsidies. Motorists and motor freight carriers already pay their share of user taxes through the gas tax, registration and license fees, and the weight mile tax on larger commercial vehicles. Equity requires that transit users also directly contribute to roads through the farebox and that bicyclists also be taxed separately and directly, specifically to pay for the costs of specialized infrastructure the other modes of transport do not and can not use. Anything less is socialism and not the freedom of democracy that built this city and country