Oregon pump prices barely affect transit, traffic

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Pump prices barely affect transit, traffic Tri-Met sees a spike in riders, but other signs seem to say the public isn't fazed by fuel costs

Saturday, April 8, 2000

By Norm Maves Jr. of The Oregonian staff

How much are Oregonians willing to pay for gasoline before they change how they get to work?

Gas Prices/Taxes Oregon gas prices have skyrocketed recently, causing many to wonder if there is a conspiracy among oil companies; meanwhile, the legislature and voters debate an increase in gas taxes. Nobody knows, but they do know this: $1.75 a gallon for regular unleaded isn't the breaking point. Portland area commuters appear to be driving their cars as much as they always have, despite the recent gasoline price jump.

And since the Department of Energy thinks gas prices won't reach the dreaded $2 level this summer -- and are about to start a gentle descent back to $1.40 or so -- we may have to wait for the next price eruption to measure it again.

The numbers tell one story about the recent price increases: Tri-Met ridership spiked by 5.3 percent in February, its most recent statistics. That's about 80,000 fares, and because most of them were in cash, Tri-Met thinks there's a direct link to the recent surge in pump prices.

But other indicators point in a different direction. Some of the Portland area's bigger employers report no change at all in the way their people are getting to work.

Intel, with 12,000 employees and a subsidized public transportation option? Nothing.

Standard Insurance, with 1,900 employees in three downtown campuses and its own subsidy? Zip.

Downtown Nordstrom? Nope.

In fact, it's tough to find evidence anywhere that the area is feeling the slightest tremor.

The Oregon Department of Transportation, which has 135 cameras placed in strategic traffic locations around the state, checked its records clear back to October and saw no change. C-Tran, which transports commuters from as far away as Battle Ground and Ridgefield in Washington to downtown Portland, saw nothing it could connect to the increase in gas prices.

Parking Management's multilevel parking garage at Southwest Sixth Avenue, located conveniently amid downtown office complexes, has even seen an increase in commuter parking.

"Those are the early parkers," said Shashi Abay, who manages the structure and sees them all come and go. "And they're paying $2.75 an hour."

"Some of these," she continued, "have been coming in here regularly for 10 years. They're middle- and upper-class people, and they have more of a commitment to their lives than to have OPEC slow them down."

What's going on? One theory comes from academia.

"Indeed, it may just be a matter of consumer confidence," said Veronica Dujon, a professor of sociology at Portland State University. "People may be so confident in the economy that they don't see a crisis coming. It's entirely speculation, but one does wonder what it would take to create a change."

It's not as if nobody cares about the cost of gasoline. Radio station KKRZ ran its second Free Gas Friday on (you knew this) Friday and jammed Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard with 500 to 700 cars.

It works like this: The station announces at 7 a.m. the location of a Union 76 gas station, then picks up the tab for the cars that make it to the pumps from 8 to 9 a.m. It works so well that the radio station plans to keep it up.

About 100 cars got the free gas Friday, but the jam was impressive.

Public transportation commuters have noticed the increase in the cost of filling the tank in the family buggy but mostly shrug it off. The reasons some of them have for using Tri-Met have nothing to do with gas prices.

"I think more about air pollution than I do prices," May Davis said. She commutes every morning from her home in Scholls to the Barbur Boulevard Transit Center with her daughter, Debi Boas, then rides the bus to her job at the Portland VA Medical Center.

"(The price increase) means that we make a more concentrated effort to organize our errands on the way back," she said.

Tim Nelson takes an even more tortuous route to work. He lives in Salem and normally rides a hired van into downtown Portland and Standard Insurance. Sometimes, including one day this week, he needs his car.

But riding the van allows him to "read or sleep or work on my way in."

Do the gas prices affect his life? Sure, but "I still have to drive to get to the same places."

Mike Smith, an intern in the Multnomah County Courthouse who lives in the Melton Park area of Lake Oswego, uses the Barbur transit center for the same reason a lot of younger riders do.

"I'm a law student," he said, "so I'm pretty poor right now. I don't know what I'd do if I had to pay the extra gas money.

"Some day I want an SUV, but I'm glad I don't have one right now."

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/news/oregonian/00/04/lc_71comut08.frame

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), April 09, 2000


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