Cities need the power to use road tolls and congestion taxes, group says

It is long past time that Canada's congested cities began putting a price on some of their most precious real estate, says a new report from Canada's Ecofiscal Commission.

We're not talking about toney residential enclaves, gleaming office towers, retail districts, industrial parks or condominium complexes, but rather the thoroughfares that join them.

Tolls proposed for 8 sections of 4 busiest Nova Scotia highways

It's been almost two decades since a Liberal government brought toll roads to Nova Scotia. Now, another liberal regime is looking at the possibility of building eight more.

A tender issued today by the McNeil government is requesting proposals for a feasibility study to conduct a province-wide examination of twinning and tolling at eight specific sections of four major highways.

Tolls, taxes the only way to pay for transit needs, Premier Kathleen Wynne says

Transit infrastructure in and around Toronto “needs tens of billions of dollars over the next 20 years” and new tolls and taxes are the only way to pay for it, says Premier Kathleen Wynne.

But in a major speech to the Toronto Region Board of Trade, Wynne on Monday stressed any levies must be earmarked to improve public transit and roads.

“I believe that any investments from new revenue must be entirely and transparently dedicated to transportation projects so that the cost is directly tied to a measurable result,” the premier said.

For whom the road tolls?

Since the start of Rob Ford’s term, city residents have watched council fight over how to pay for better transit. Now the public will get a chance to have their say.

On Tuesday, October 9, Ford’s executive committee approved a plan to consult locals on a menu of new revenue tools to be used to fund the expansion of the regional transit system.

Toronto council ridicules deputy mayor’s idea to build private toll lanes

The idea is half-formed and completely out of the blue, but it managed to garner more notice than any other business on a day of grim-toned debate at city hall that Mayor Rob Ford termed Toronto’s “day of reckoning.”

At around 7 p.m., after hours of heated argument over cuts that could include closing museums, offloading the Toronto Zoo and selling three city-owned theatres, Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday managed to leave speechless even the most loquacious of council members with a motion to study adding private toll lanes to the Don Valley Parkway.

“Are you serious?” was all the normally garrulous Adam Vaughan could muster during questions.

Mr. Holyday couldn’t elaborate much on his proposal, only adding that it’s an idea originally put forth by former councillor Paul Sutherland. In 2001, Mr. Sutherland suggested adding four centre-express lanes to the DVP for toll-paying vehicles and express buses. It was quickly defeated by council.

Toll Road Privatization: As Ohio Considers It, Indiana Serves As Cautionary Tale

WASHINGTON -- In two weeks, the cost of traveling the 157-mile length of the Indiana Toll Road will rise more than 2 percent, from $8.80 to an even $9, for those who pay the toll in cash. The fare will jump a full buck for truckers hauling semi-trailers, from $35.20 to $36.20.

The July 1 toll hike may not seem so painful, until you consider that those tolls were about half of their soon-to-be rates only five years ago -- and that they hadn’t risen for two decades prior to that. Even harder to swallow for some drivers, truckers in particular, is the fact that their growing contributions go not to the State of Indiana but to overseas investors who've leased the toll road from the state.

"Saying we're less than thrilled would put it really mildly," says Todd Spencer, executive vice president at the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, a trade group that represents truckers. "In Indiana, over the span of a few years, we've watched truck tolls more than double."

In 2006, under the orchestration of Gov. Mitch Daniels (R), the state struck a deal to lease the road for a period of 75 years to Australia-based Macquarie Group and Spain-based Cintra. The investors paid the state $3.8 billion upfront in exchange for the right to collect tolls. The investors are required to maintain and upgrade the road for the duration of the lease.

It's still too early to tell how good or how rotten a deal the state got. In fact, there are those who believe Macquarie and Cintra may have greatly overpaid for the highway, and Daniels himself has gloated that the arrangement was "the best deal since Manhattan was sold for beads." (Daniels' office did not respond to questions about the deal.)

But what can't be denied is that the road is getting more expensive to travel on. And no one knows how expensive it might get. (So far the rates have not been raised on drivers with transponders, but that will change in 2016, when those drivers will start paying the cash rates.) The road's leaseholders can now raise the toll annually at one of three rates -- at a flat two percent, at the percentage increase in the consumer price index or at the percentage increase in gross domestic product -- whichever is highest. Over the course of the coming decades, Hoosiers can expect to learn a hard lesson in compound interest, long after Gov. Daniels is gone.

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Source: Huffington 

65% of Torontonians say no to road tolls; 72% want bike lanes

Torontonians strongly oppose using road tolls to pay for Mayor Rob Ford’s planned — but unfunded — Sheppard subway line, says a new poll.

Forum Research’s automated telephone survey of 1,050 Torontonians conducted Wednesday found, however, strong support for Ford’s soon-to-be-released plan to put physically separated bike lanes on some downtown streets.

On tolls, the idea of charging drivers on main thoroughfares remains a non-starter with the public, said Forum president Lorne Bozinoff.

Some 65 per cent of respondents said they don’t support tolls to pay for the Sheppard line. When rephrased as road tolls to reduce traffic congestion, the support was only slightly higher, at 43 per cent.

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Go with road tolls, Environment Commissioner tells GTA

Ontario Environment Commissioner Gord Miller says toll roads are the way to go if the province is serious about tackling traffic congestion.

“We have to reduce the number of single-passenger vehicle trips in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area,” Miller said in a report released Tuesday that notes that such trips are already at a higher level than most comparable cities.

“Traffic congestion is more than just an inconvenience; it imposes huge costs on the economy, the environment and public health,” Miller said in the annual Greenhouse Gas Report.

According to the report, single passenger vehicle trips in GTA are projected to increase by 1.4 million additional vehicles by 2031.

“For many reasons, the ECO (Environmental Commissioner’s Office) continues to believe that the government needs to seriously consider introducing similar road pricing in Ontario” to that of other jurisdictions, the reports states.

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