Why London-style congestion fees won't work in downtown Vancouver
Derek Moscato, Special to The Vancouver Province
August 20, 2007
Motorists in the Lower Mainland have endured a deluge of roadway headaches this
summer, from traffic jams on freeways and bridges to construction-related delays across
the region.
But they haven't had to face what motorists in New York City might eventually be
contending with: Paying tolls to enter the city core.
Though it's far from a done deal, the U.S. government last week pledged $354 million US
for a plan to ding drivers of cars and trucks between $8 and $21 to enter Manhattan
during peak hours.
CORE CONGESTION: Congestion builds during the afternoon commute over
Vancouver's Burrard Street Bridge. Vancouver's bridges could be an entry point if a
London-style congestion tax on downtown traffic were to be introduced.
Nick Procaylo, Province File
Backed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, this is a bold attempt to deal with
worsening gridlock in North America's largest metropolis.
Across the Atlantic, congestion charges have already been introduced in London and
Stockholm. Both cities have enjoyed success in easing traffic and reducing greenhouse
gases, thanks to the fee. Other major North American cities are now flirting with this
idea, including Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.
Should Vancouver toll drivers who enter the downtown core or a wider swathe of the city
centre? Some would say yes.
But while the inner cities of London and New York may be well-suited for congestion
tolling, I believe Vancouver's downtown is not.
That's because many of the worst traffic jams in Greater Vancouver take place far from
the downtown peninsula -- at the bridges, tunnels and arterial roads in this region's
outskirts.
Even advocates of congestion pricing agree about this.
Todd Litman, executive director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, says tolling
drivers to enter downtown would only address a fraction of the city's traffic woes.
"Congestion pricing can be done badly, and it needs to be done well," he says.
Litman maintains that the fee works for cities with good commuter options, but that our
region "has done an only mediocre job of improving public transit." Then, there's the
issue of dollars and cents to pay for all of this.
Do we really want to create an expensive bureaucracy just to collect a new tax from
downtown-bound motorists? Finally, there's the issue of fairness. This kind of toll hurts
suburbanites who are forced to drive to the city core from places like the Fraser Valley
because of a lack of public-transit alternatives.
And that brings us back to the feisty New Yorkers.
According to an opinion poll cited by the New York Times, well-heeled Manhattan
residents support the congestion-charge proposal -- but folks from other New York
boroughs, including Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, do not.
That sounds like the kind of urban-suburban divide that Metro Vancouver does not need
in 2007.
So before jumping on the tolling bandwagon, let's instead get on with the business of
fixing our region's current traffic and transit crunch -- an outcome that would be
appreciated in Whalley or the West End and all points in between.
dmoscato@yahoo.com