http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/toll-roads...ears-1.1808801
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Brunnen says currently congestion costs Canadians in our five largest cities about $7.5B annually.
“From 2004 to 2012 Calgary transportation spending increased by 66 per cent per capita while commute times decreased by only 20 per cent. So we’re seeing diminished returns to our investment in transportation spending,” said Brunnen.
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Ward 1 Councillor, Ward Sutherland, says toll roads could be a way to charge people from outside the city who use the roads here.
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Brunnen is proposing the lanes be set up initially on Crowchild Trail, Glenmore Trail and Deerfoot Trail and says an appropriate level of toll would be about $5 a day for the average user.
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I heard this on the radio this morning and with how passionate CP is on the topic of driving/traffic I was surprised there wasn't a thread on this.
First off, commute times have decreased by 20% from 2004 to 2012 in Calgary?!?!?! I'd like to see some data to back that up.
Anyway it seems like they're using the justification of "outsiders are using our roads, they gotta pay as well" to push this on to everyone, or else why not just put up toll booths on major roads into the city?
The article states, and the radio went into a little more detail, but with technology advances there wouldn't actually be any physical toll booths, just something that would scan your license or smart phone payments or something along those lines.
I've never lived anywhere that had toll roads so I'm somewhat ignorant, but the Coquihalla highway used to be a toll road and is now fully paid for because of that, so the model seems to work... however I don't know how much pushback there was initially when the tolls were introduced either.
Regardless if toll roads are coming, I think they have to have a pretty open book policy on where this revenue is going... I mean I would be more inclined to support it if they said something like "With this toll on Crowchild, we can now afford to build a double decker 6 lane bridge across the river".
I'm interested to read other opinions/rants.