Get ready for tolls on new Golden Ears Bridge
 

METRO VANCOUVER - Drivers planning to use the $800-million Golden Ears Bridge when it opens this summer can start signing up now for a break on electronic tolls.

TransLink has opened its Quickpass customer service centre, allowing drivers to register for discounted electronic tolling passes, either by leasing a transponder or signing up as a video customer.

Both will give drivers a discounted rate on the tolls compared to those who opt to ‘pay-as-you-go’ when crossing the bridge.

Fred Cummings, TransLink vice-president of major construction projects, said the first customer signed up as soon as the centre opened on Wednesday.

“It’s all been very positive,” he said. “What people like about it, is it doesn’t affect their travel time. They don’t have to have correct change and don’t have to stop or slow down on the bridge.”

The Golden Ears Bridge marks the first electronically tolled crossing in western Canada. It will be equipped with toll sensors and digital cameras to track and identify every vehicle that travels on the one-kilometre span.

Overhead electronic sensors will detect whether a vehicle passing underneath is a car, truck or motorcycle and whether it is equipped with a transponder. Tolls will be charged accordingly.

Drivers who sign up as a transponder customer would lease the unit from TransLink, putting down a $10 deposit and paying $1 per month. The transponders, which can be placed on the front dashboard, would link with the vehicle licence plates to provide information leading to the address of the vehicle's owner.

Drivers with transponders would be charged a discounted toll of $2.85 for cars and standard vans, pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles.

The toll rises to $3.45 per crossing for those who have registered for the payment system — as a video customer but drive without transponders. If a vehicle doesn't have a transponder, digital cameras will snap a photo of its rear licence plate.

Drivers who cross without registering and don’t have a transponder will be billed $4 by mail.

Motorcyclists pay $1.45 to $2.55. Truck drivers pay $5.75 to $9.75, depending on the vehicle’s size and whether they have a transponder. Bicycles, electric bikes and pedestrians, transit and emergency vehicles are exempt from toll fees.

Drivers will not be able to renew their vehicle’s ICBC insurance or driver’s licence with outstanding toll bills over $25.

Cummings said drivers can either prepay for the service, bill it to a credit card or receive a monthly bill in the mill. About 30,000 vehicles are expected to use the bridge daily when it opens, with the tolls bringing in roughly $50 million to $100 million a year, he said. The bridge will be paid off in about 32 years.

TransLink said the Quickpass customer service centre has created 31 new jobs in Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge.

Drivers can register for the system online at www.quickpasstolling.ca, call 604-460-5050 or visit the Quickpass customer service centre in Pitt Meadows or Langley.
http://www.vancouversun.com/Cars/rea...937/story.html

I thought it said "trolls"

$4 per crossing!!!! HOLY FUCK!

good thing i dont go there.

Assuming $50M/year x 32 years = $1.6 Billion

Is it just me, or does that figure sound a bit steep?

It's a joint venture with private companies... they companies probably get a cut.

$4 fucking dollars?! wtf?!! thats over $1000 a year if you don't cross it on weekends wtf is this bullshit.....

there should be an alternative then to cross -_- they should leave the old bridge accessible jesus christ


and is that $4 a day or a time... -_-

There is no OLD bridge. People either take the Port Mann, Mission bridge or Albion ferry.

...and it's per crossing.

where the hell is this bridge? i havent noticed a new bridge goin up.

I hope they toll all the bridges :D

Old bridge? It's replacing a decades old ferry system that forced you to wait for up to an hour and a half to cross half a mile of water (Albion Ferry). Of course you can drive half an hour out of your way to another bridge, but then the amount of gas you spend doing so ends up being higher than your toll fee.

I think he read Golden Gate Bridge, and thought of Lion's Gate Bridge instead?

Hey! Cuz that's what I did for a sec...:D


....but then again I'm jetlagged.

yeah realized afterwards; i thought it was the new pitt river bridge

Are you really going to wait for a reply before you Google it? :p:p

u'll see the overpass going across lougheed right along side the mall in pitt meadows with the superstore and theatre, and it goes all the way alongside it into the back of maple ridge with the industrial park and then across the river

that's what i do..

i usually let it out before i examine the situation

screw that.... if I ever cross that bridge, I'm gonna drive through the barrier with all my plates covered hahah. I wonder if there will be cops waiting on the other side of the bridge....

fuck tolled bridges

What bridge is this? Where is it?

It sounds right to me. Cost of capital is ~10% so they need roughly 80M for 32 years to cover the 800M cost.

It looks like it's worth getting the transponder even if you only use the bridge a few times a month. It basically pays for itself.

also http://www.goldenearsbridge.ca/the_project/maps.13.html

any dumb ass who buys a house on the other side of a river from his work, with no bridge, deserves to be tolled alot more then $4 a day. call it a tax for stupid people.

Hey, I work five minutes from my house, so I couldn't care less. However, when it's a Saturday afternoon and you want to go from Langley to Maple Ridge, the ferry is still backed up with a 45 minute sailing wait. It's not just jammed during rush hour with people trying to go to work. It's busy all the time.