Quote:
Originally Posted by 4X4
It's not a bad idea... If you live within a certain radius, you enter DT for free. If you live beyond, you pay based on your license plate registration.
In Rome they have this system. There are cameras over every street that enters the historic center. Sounds expensive, and perhaps this is not necessarily the way to do it, but I'm starting to warm up to the idea.
Toronto has a system for the express highways. An electronic device in your car that basically proves payment for the toll for that road. Without the device, you get mailed a bill for the toll.
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A congestion tax, which is what you're referring to in Rome, isn't a bad idea. The issue is the availability of suitable alternative forms of transportation. It would be politically impossible to impose a tax on vehicles entering downtown without providing substantially increased transit options. The cities in which such a system operates effectively are almost always home to substantial public transport systems (London, Rome).
The toll road system, like that in Toronto, is a good idea for high volume thoroughfares especially. Most major world cities feature at least some toll roads, if not many. In many cases it's the only means to get new developments paid for, there are actually a number of large institutional investors who have divisions devoted to the development of tollways that they then receive returns from over the years. A toll system utilizing the electronic passes that most use, allowing cars to pass through with little delay, would be ideal for Deerfoot. The issue that the OP seems to be unable to grasp is that you can't implement a scheme that selectively targets individuals to pay the toll, user tolls on a public roadway are an all or nothing affair.