In a few short years, Metro Vancouver drivers could be charged a fee to pass through bustling city centres, access busy roads or — of course — cross bridges.
These so-called “congestion point charges” are one of two options the Mobility Pricing Independent Commission is considering to ease overcrowding on the region’s roads and produce revenue to pay for transportation infrastructure.
The independent commission is tasked with recommending options for mobility pricing to TransLink and the Mayors’ Council overseeing Lower Mainland transportation services.
“It’s about charging just enough to get a small number of people to think about choosing a different route or choosing a different mode or driving at a different time,” the commission’s executive director Daniel Firth told reporters during a technical briefing Monday
My guess is that the years are not going to be few or short.
This is a civic election year. Anyone you know wish to run on a platform of instituting road tolls?
The NDP, having arguably formed the government as a consequence of removing tolls from the Port Mann Bridge, would be slaughtered if they then proposed returning them. They have effectively ruled out anything that sounds, smells or is in the neighbourhood of ‘road tolls.’
There are so many contentious issues*, it’s not reasonable (or expected) that the commission will address them in the time available
In the meantime, decisions must be made on the fiscal hole the NDP created with the removal of tolls. Pattullo Bridge was expected to be financed with them. Won’t happen. The regional portion of the 10-year plan and matching funding for major transit projects must be addressed – and soon.
Mobility pricing isn’t going to be a solution for any of that. And once (or if) the tough decisions are made, there will be little appetite for returning to yet another funding mechanism if no other deadline looms.
Meanwhile, there will be so much to study, so many conversations to have, so much consultation to undertake.
The commission’s final report is due in April. Before then, the plan is to conduct public meetings and hold stakeholder workshops, and the commission’s website will open to online comments next month.
*Contentious issues like …
Privacy and trust. What happens to the data? Will the charges be visible in real time? Will you know how much you’re paying as you’re driving? (People say they like transparency, but in reality they hate visible charges. Ask the federal Conservatives about the wisdom of making the GST a separate item on every bill.)
Implementation. Remember Compass. Or Phoenix. Or almost any health-records technology.
Fairness. Please define. Will lower-income people be punished for driving further to affordable housing? Will Vancouver, where traffic is dropping, be punished with a congestion charge while the suburbs effectively get subsidized? Will the North Shore be punished because there are no other options than bridges? Will someone else be paying less than me?
