Metro Vancouver council sets up commission to introduce mobility pricing

[MrPhreak]

Originally Posted by Tapioca

Vancouver is not Metro Vancouver.

Even if Gregor is voted out, this won't change what the other 20 mayors of Metro Vancouver want to do.

Look at the number of cars on the road these days. Look at the amount of people here in the region. Something needs to be done. Mobility pricing may not be the right thing, but so far, no one else here has proposed anything to relieve congestion.

It isn't really about congestion in the end, it is about creating a new feel-good-tax to shore up city coffers

On another note, I also don't understand how Gregor even got in. The guy is flat out funded by Tides, which has a very specific agenda of installing politicians with generalized platforms so they can then aggressively change public policy against the will of the public.

He literally has no interest in serving the people of Vancouver, his entire purpose in office is built entirely around furthering the agenda of what is basically a small right wing group of environmental nut jobs. It is one of the most undemocratic and underhanded tactics I've seen these groups take over the years.

It plays out like a conspiracy theory, which is why I think people are reluctant to believe it. There is at least some good journalism exposing it getting published though. For example:

Who?s funding Mayor Robertson? | Financial Post

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...rticle4105885/

$520,000 in Support of Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson's Political Career with the NDP & Vision Vancouver - Rethink Campaigns

It would be nice if we could elect a mayor that actually stands up for the values and beliefs of Vancouverites for once

[Traum]

Originally Posted by Great68

Not that simple.

How are you going to calculate the kms? Odometer reading? Can be faked, and what are you going to do if someone takes road trip out of town? How are you going to differentiate that mileage?

I'd say it depends entirely on how you look at the charge. If you maintain the view that the kms must entirely be done within Metro Vancouver for the charge to be applicable, then it is indeed difficult to calculate the kms without using some sort of modern GPS technology. However, even in our current scheme of things, the gas taxes do not work out like this. Let's say someone living in Mission always purchases his gas from Maple Ridge where the carbon tax (on gas) still applies, but he does the majority of his driving in Mission eastward. Is the amount of money he paid in carbon tax correlating to his vehicle usage?

If you look at the charge as being levied on someone with his vehicle registration address in the Lower Mainland, then the kms issue goes away. It basically becomes a fee for registering your vehicle in the Lower Mainland. The rationale here could be, if you are registering a vehicle in LM, you have to shoulder a portion of the (road) infrastructure costs. It becomes kind of like property tax, where the owner would have to pay property tax regardless of how often he actually lives at that address.

As to odometer tempering, it is already illegal, and can be dealt with using our current odometer rollback laws.

[MarkyMark]

I wonder what the price per km would be if they went that route.

I think it's more likely that they will put cameras up in the most congested areas and toll people the same way they do on the bridges.

[Great68]

Originally Posted by Traum

If you look at the charge as being levied on someone with his vehicle registration address in the Lower Mainland, then the kms issue goes away. It basically becomes a fee for registering your vehicle in the Lower Mainland. The rationale here could be, if you are registering a vehicle in LM, you have to shoulder a portion of the (road) infrastructure costs. It becomes kind of like property tax, where the owner would have to pay property tax regardless of how often he actually lives at that address.

The entire reason of moving to road pricing is to more fairly distribute the costs of using Metro Vancouver's road infrastructure to those that use it the most.

If you're looking at it that way, you're not any better off than you were before and why bother changing the system at all?

[kross9]

just my 2 cents

why not charge a low amount for tolling? Like $0.5-$1.50 each way. That's more incising than 3.5 each way and long term more sustainable for the folks who have to commute said toll each day. Much better than the 3.50 each way 7 a day... $1680 a year just to get to and fro work

[hotjoint]

Originally Posted by kross9

just my 2 cents

why not charge a low amount for tolling? Like $0.5-$1.50 each way. That's more incising than 3.5 each way and long term more sustainable for the folks who have to commute said toll each day. Much better than the 3.50 each way 7 a day... $1680 a year just to get to and fro work

That would be the smart thing to do but unfortunately our government isn't that smart. It doesn't take a college/university degree to figure that out. I've always said that they should toll EVERY bridge $1 to pay for shit until it's paid off then remove it.

[Infiniti]

Originally Posted by hotjoint

That would be the smart thing to do but unfortunately our government isn't that smart. It doesn't take a college/university degree to figure that out. I've always said that they should toll EVERY bridge $1 to pay for shit until it's paid off then remove it.

Is it though? Im sure that based on the figures the government has at its disposal concerning these pieces of infrastructure, they must've calculated some type of timeline upon which they would hope to pay it off (taking into account, inflation, borrowing costs...) At $1.00, its probably not high enough to fulfill they requirements within their specific timeline whereas at $3.50 they can maintain their projected timeline. Unfortunately, its all in the details and we as citizens don't really have access to those documents that outline in specific detail the goverment's plan for financing these projects.

[Traum]

The idea of tolling every bridge in the region is more of a traffic reduction / management measure instead of a calculation to determine how soon a given piece of infrastructure is to be paid off. So we are really talking about 2 different solutions for 2 different issues, even though both involve tolling and public infrastructure.

[ImportPsycho]

Article conveniently left out the fact that we already pay highest gas tax in NA?World? And bullshit translink tax?

[Ch28]

Originally Posted by hotjoint

I've always said that they should toll EVERY bridge $1 to pay for shit until it's paid off then remove it.

Just like how the Vancouver parking meters were bumped up to 10pm "just for the Olympics" in which case it would then roll back to 8pm?

[Jmac]

Originally Posted by ImportPsycho

Article conveniently left out the fact that we already pay highest gas tax in NA?World? And bullshit translink tax?

Metro Vancouver doesn't pay anywhere near the highest gas taxes in the world. North America seems plausible.

[hotjoint]

Originally Posted by Ch28

Just like how the Vancouver parking meters were bumped up to 10pm "just for the Olympics" in which case it would then roll back to 8pm?

You got me there