Road pricing isn't highway robbery
Traffic-choked, cash-strapped cities might turn to congestion-curing surcharges
Last week, Globe and Mail columnist Andrew Coyne wrote about what’s going to be the next big debate in large North American cities: the issue of ‘road pricing.’
Road pricing is, essentially, charging a toll for vehicles to drive in the downtown core.
New York City will be enacting a road price toll in Manhattan beginning next year and, with traffic congestion only getting worse in major Canadian cities, the concept is going to get attention from some of the more progressive mayors in the country.
The concept of road pricing is to deter people from driving in the heavily-trafficked city centres. In London, England, where the toll has been in place for some time, traffic declined significantly, allowing couriers and emergency and delivery vehicles who work in the core to be much more efficient.
However enticing that may sound for Mayor Olivia Chow and the left-leaning Toronto councillors, it’s highly unlikely that Toronto would be allowed to adopt the plan; at least not as long as Doug Ford is Premier.
Ford has made it quite clear that he favours more roads and highways to handle traffic, despite the fact that study after study shows that more roads only encourages more traffic, which increases traffic gridlock, which makes it more difficult and more frustrating to get from point A to point B.
Road pricing may not be a popular choice, but for cash-strapped city councils like Toronto and Hamilton, extra tax revenue might be just too alluring.