bridge tolls for thee

Put tolls on all local bridges and tunnels, engineers say

The Vancouver Sun

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

By William Boei

The best way to manage traffic in Greater Vancouver is by tolling every major bridge and tunnel in the region, say the engineers who design transportation systems.

The Consulting Engineers of B.C., an industry group whose members are the province's largest engineering companies, say they are reluctant to meddle in politics, but they think the provincial government's plan to toll only a newly twinned Port Mann Bridge will not work.

The engineers support the province's Gateway Program, including twinning the Port Mann and widening the Trans-Canada Highway, said the group's president, Arnold Badke.

"However, you cannot toll one bridge at a time," Badke said. "In the long term that cannot work because it will drive traffic to other routes and they will get overloaded."

The tolls would not only help pay for the new roads and bridges, but also for improved transit service throughout the region.

CEBC director Chris Newcomb said the engineering group has not done its own traffic studies, but is drawing on the collective knowledge of its members, many of them transportation specialists.

"What we're saying is that bridges are the most expensive parts of the system, and also the most congested," Newcomb said.

"So if you're going to pay for bridges, you should charge people who use bridges.

"If you want to manage the traffic flow, those are the points at which you can most easily manage it, because people can't take side roads around the bridge. You either cross that bridge, or you cross a different bridge which is also tolled, or you rearrange your life so as not to cross the bridge.

"It's a perfect win-win in terms of being able to control and manage the traffic flows."

But it clashes with the provincial government's policy of tolling only new facilities, and only when there is a free alternative available.

Regional government officials have been expressing concern that for the Port Mann, the government is designating the Pattullo Bridge as the free alternative, even though it is old, narrow, dangerous and already seriously congested.

Many regional politicians have been calling for a region-wide transportation demand management plan to control traffic, including tolls.

So far, the government hasn't budged from its position.

The engineers have told the province what they think, Newcomb said, but "the response is that there is a government policy that there must be a free alternative."

Now they are hoping to generate public support for system-wide tolling "so that if the government could see it didn't have a lot of negative connotations in terms of public support, then perhaps they would be willing to adopt that alternative."

Badke said it's not possible to keep up with demand for road space by building more capacity without tolls. "You just increase demand, and in five to 10 years you will be back to the position where you are now."

The engineers don't agree either with critics who say region-wide tolls can adequately reduce congestion without the Port Mann and Highway 1 expansion.

"You have to bring everything up to current demand," he said. "Then, if you combine that with tolling later to control demand, there is an effective tool right there."

Newcomb added: "It's not rocket science to understand that if you have a system which is tolled throughout, it enables you to manage and control the traffic flows throughout the region.

"You have a much better result than if you toll only certain parts of the system for no other reason than they happen to be the newest part of the system. There's no logic behind that."

The engineers say tolls on 10 or 11 crossings of the Fraser River, including the Massey Tunnel, would serve to manage traffic throughout Greater Vancouver.

Bridges into downtown Vancouver could also be tolled, Newcomb said, but those tolls might be lower because the traffic on them is less congested.

System-wide tolls could be significantly lower than the $2-to-$4 range being considered for a twinned Port Mann and for TransLink's new Golden Ears Bridge, the only other bridge in the region planned to be tolled.

"You can distribute a relatively low toll rate over a wide area," Newcomb said.

"Everybody is treated equally, nobody can claim they are being discriminated against, and you can still raise substantial volume of revenue, which can go towards paying for Gateway, but which can also pay for transit and rail and buses and bicycle paths and all those other good things that we know are needed in order to have a good transportation system in place."

The tolls could be varied, the engineers say. Possibilities include reducing tolls during off-peak hours, removing them completely overnight and making HOV lanes a free alternative.

"You would start out with a nominal toll on every bridge, and then you would adjust it as time went by to rebalance the system," Newcomb said.

"Balancing the system means you get smooth flow. And when you get smooth flow you have faster travel times and you have less idling in traffic that causes pollution. You accomplish numerous different objectives with that one thing."

Newcomb said the hardest argument to counter is that the people who can least afford it are hit hardest by tolls. For example, a single mother might not be able to afford to live close to her job, need a car to get to work and drop off her children and have no choice but to travel during peak hours.

However, he said, she might be helped by improved transit services, and there could a transportation subsidy for people who need it.

The engineers counselled not waiting for all transit alternatives to be in place before imposing tolls.

"If you wait until the perfect public transportation system is in place before you put on tolls, you'll never put on tolls," Badke said.

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