A Letter In The Vancouver Sun
Ah “Road Pricing”, the next great tax grab by regional politicians and bureaucrats. When, oh when will they learn to make do with much cheaper and just as effective light rail?
The sad fact is, if regional politicians do get their wish and road pricing is approved, kiss goodbye to any sane and/or affordable transit planning for the peasants south of the Fraser and say hello to subways in Vancouver!
Wednesday, June 3: TransLinkai??i??s record canai??i??t justify road pricing
Re: TransLink mulls road pricing to generate $23 billion, June 20
For road pricing to succeed, one needs a comprehensive public transit network as an attractive alternative to the car. Metro Vancouver does not have this.
Stockholm, Sweden has a form of congestion charging or road pricing and a comparison with Metro Vancouver is revealing.
Metro Stockholm has an area of 6,488 square kilometres, with a population of just over two million (population density 320 per sq. km) By comparison, Metro Vancouver has an area of 2,877 sq. km, with a population of 2.5 million (pop. density 856.2 per sq.km.)
Stockholm has three heavy-rail metro lines, with a total length of 106 km; five suburban rail lines, with a total length of 300 km; and four LRT/tram lines with a total length of 30 km.
Vancouver, with a larger population and more than twice the density, has only 68 km of mini-metro; and a 69- km commuter rail line with service limited to five trains in and out each week day.
Vancouver has almost three times the population density Stockholm has but a fraction of rail transit options. We have not invested in affordable transit.
TransLink, as BC Transit before, has squandered tax monies on three (soon to be four) prestigious and ultra expensive mini-metro lines that have done little to alleviate congestion and gridlock. The well paid transit bureaucrats want even more money, through road pricing, and continue to do more of the same. I think not!
It is time for regional taxpayers to say adios to politicians who support this road pricing nonsense and maybe its time to say adios to TransLink as well.
MALCOLM JOHNSTON, Delta
