James Whitty

Biography provided by participant

James Whitty is the manager of Oregon Department of Transportation's Office of Innovative Partnerships and Alternative Funding. He obtained his bachelor's degree and Juris Doctorate from the University of Oregon. Through the Office of Innovative Partnerships and Alternative Funding, he manages the development of transportation projects as public-private ventures and the Road User Fee Pilot Program. Whitty joined the department in 2001 to manage several task forces with "cutting edge" missions for innovative transportation funding, including the Road User Fee Task Force to develop a mileage fee to ultimately replace the fuels tax, and the Innovative Finance Advisory Committee. Whitty has led all aspects of development and implementation of Oregon's visionary Road User Fee Pilot Program. After joining ODOT in 2001, Whitty's leadership of the Road User Fee Task Force led to the development of an innovative proposal for testing a distance-based road user fee. After defining the potential alternatives and determining the outline of the program, Whitty has led development and implementation of the Road User Fee Pilot Program. In this role, Whitty has spearheaded the design of a sophisticated yet elegant system for tracking vehicle miles traveled and collecting revenue from drivers and service stations, while minimizing disruption imposed on drivers. Bringing this concept to the implementation of the pilot program has involved wrestling with complex policy and implementation issues, such as technology, collection methods, privacy concerns, systems integration and the details of transitioning from the gas tax to a road user fee system. In addition, Whitty has headed Oregon's public-private partnership program, which engages the private sector in financing highway projects. Whitty also brings a private sector perspective to his role in transportation policy. His prior experience includes 10 years working with transportation finance public policy for Associated Oregon Industries and the Portland Chamber of Commerce and six years in private law practice.