Contrasting Cities: Seattle vs Vancouver

… the biggest winners in Tuesday’s election appear to be Seattle’s urbanists — its advocates for more bicycling, transit and density. Candidates they backed have won or are ahead in every race as ballots continue to be counted.
And the Move Seattle transportation levy they championed is all but certain to pass, as well. …
Cascade Bicycle Club, Seattle Transit Blog, Seattle Bike Blog and Seattle Subway, urbanist-type organizations that endorsed in the council election, are getting their way. No council candidate endorsed by any of those groups is currently losing.
“This election is a huge win,” said Owen Pickford, executive director of The Urbanist, a Seattle-based organization and blog. …

.

An influential think-tank says Vancouver can’t solve its traffic problems without some kind of road tolling system.
The case for road pricing — in Vancouver this would probably mean a comprehensive system of tolls that go up or down depending on traffic volume — is clear.
What remains muddy, however, is how to overcome a unique obstacle preventing implementation of this sensible solution to Metro Vancouver’s traffic woes.
This obstacle is Premier Christy Clark and her turf war with municipal leaders. Clark holds the hammer in terms of legislative authority and control over revenue, and she uses it to insist — despite counter-productive examples of plebiscites on both the HST and TransLink funding — on holding another vote if/ when the region decides it wants to use tolling as a tool to rein in congestion. …
But how Clark’s own government collects and spends money? On this, the voice of the people matters to her not so much — leaving her free to, among other things, unilaterally decide to spend $3 billion or so to replace the congested Massey Tunnel south of Vancouver with a bridge that may or may not be tolled.
Still, she has no qualms about hobbling municipal leaders by imposing a vote that, history suggests, will be influenced more by strident populism than thoughtful analysis. …
Of course, comprehensive, variable tolling for the region was proposed almost five years ago by a senior group from the Ministry of Transport, TransLink and the cities of Vancouver and Surrey. The regional mayors, who have weak powers to oversee some aspects of TransLink, have renewed this call from time to time.
But Clark keeps saying No — or she sets the bar so high that any proposal is near-certain to fail.