
Parking Fee Hike Will Fund Low-Income Transit Rides – wweek.com
Helen Huiskes
Motorists returning to downtown after the July 4 holiday will notice a change when they pay for street parking: The price went up 20 cents on every spot.
The Portland Bureau of Transportation says it’s a “climate fee,” intended to remind people of “the externalized costs of driving (including greenhouse gas emissions, traffic congestion, and use of roadway space).”
Even by local measures, that’s an unusually pointed rebuke to drivers. But cities across the nation are shouldering the task of crafting policies to offset climate change, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court stripping the federal government of its tools, as The New York Times reported last week.