Transportation Minister: Let Translink Introduce Road Pricing, Group Urges

Vancouver—Voters Taking Action on Climate Change (VTACC) is today calling on BC Transportation Minister Shirley Bond to give Translink the authority to introduce region wide road pricing (tolling) throughout Metro Vancouver in order to raise revenue and manage demand for single occupant vehicle (SOV) travel.

“For more than 15 years we’ve known that Metro Vancouver cannot meet its revenue, transit ridership and SOV demand management goals without introducing region wide road pricing,” says VTACC spokesperson Kevin Washbrook. “Translink has been hobbled from its inception by funding shortfalls. It has never met its goals for more busses on the road and the Evergreen Skytrain Line has been repeatedly delayed. Translink needs this new source of revenue as soon as possible.”

Translink currently faces a $450 million dollar shortfall in revenue needed to fund its transit system expansion plan. Minister Bond will soon meet with Translink’s mayors to search for “efficiencies” in the system and to consider further increases in transit fares, regional property taxes and gas taxes to fund this expansion. VTACC argues that system wide road pricing should be one of the key options under discussion at this meeting, and that transit expansion plans will not be met without it.

“How many efficiencies can you find in a system that has been under-funded since its creation? “ asks Washbrook. “If Translink is forced to delay transit system expansion, or, worse yet, cut back on transit service, what will Minister Bond say to the people who wait at bus stops while full busses pass them by in the morning?”

Currently, Translink’s enabling legislation only allows it to introduce road tolls for cost recovery on new transportation infrastructure. VTACC is calling on Minister Bond to amend this legislation to give Translink full authority to introduce region-wide road tolling as a source of revenue and a demand management tool.

“Road pricing is essentially a user-pay system for car drivers,” says VTACC Director and UBC Professor of Economics David Green. “By putting a price on the use of roads, Translink could both raise revenue for transit system expansion, and more effectively manage demand for use of the road system. Road tolls could be higher during periods of peak congestion, and carpoolers could travel for free. These steps would encourage people to drive less, and to switch from SOV’s to carpooling and transit.”

“Charging drivers to use the roads makes more sense than increasing property taxes to pay for our transportation system,” Green says. “Also, it is only fair that we ask drivers to pay their share before we introduce further increases in transit fares. Metro Vancouver has some of the highest transit fares in the country – that’s not equitable, nor will it encourage people to get out of their cars and onto the bus and Skytrain.”

Green went on to raise two other key points: “We need to ensure that any new pricing system minimises impacts on those who can least afford it,” he said, “and that the governing body given the authority to set pricing levels is fully accountable to the public.”

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Contact:
Kevin Washbrook, VTACC Director, 778.848.8278,
David Green, UBC Economist, 604.230.6802
www.vtacc.org