Quote:
Originally Posted by Slava
I realise this isn't to be popular before I say it, but here goes. People have to understand that they've paid for a vehicle, and pay some gas taxes and registration, but they don't pay for the cost of driving on all of these roads. A toll would make some of these roads pay for themselves through time. Take something like the ring road. Its an enormous cost to build, and ongoing maintenance as well. To me that's a perfect candidate for a toll. The airport tunnel is another. People have other options, but they might take longer, or they can pay a toll for the convenience of a faster road.
Like I say, its not popular. I get that no one wants to pay tolls and no one wants to hear that as public policy. As far as the "what if you have to work late?" or "what about more buses?" I have no idea. I guess if you work late, you pay the toll on your way home? I have no idea what that question is getting at. Transit demand might increase with tolls, or might not. That would be something to address down the line though as I'm not suggesting every road everywhere be tolled. What if the toll for say Deerfoot Trail was $1/day? How many drivers would switch to transit? I would venture that would be minimal impact, and yet generate significant funds for maintenance and upkeep.
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I could not disagree more. I usually like user fees in lieu of taxes, but I disagree with this one.
We WANT traffic to take the ring road. All trucks coming in the south end of city and going north, we want off deerfoot, and just stick to the ring road. We want them there, why discourage it's use?
We all payed for the capital cost of the roads, so the rich shouldn't have privilege to use them over the poor (even just deerfoot or the ring road).
If the toll was small amount that it wouldn't impact most people's wallet, it would cost enough money in administrative fees to not make it worth it (not to mention the traffic impact with even digital systems of collecting tolls).
As for transit, our train is utilized to capacity in the mornings, only the bus routes aren't.
If the people who can't afford to pay the drive our roads are forced to use our bus system to get to work, you just put them at an additional life disadvantage again, they now waste an extra hour going to and from work each day.
The other problem - the ring road - pretty much serves areas of the city not near speedy transit as it lies on the edge of the city.