Avoiding Port Mann tolls won’t save you much money
Posted January 29, 2014 11:31 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Avoiding those Port Mann Bridge tolls likely isn’t saving you much money according to a transportation expert who says there are several other day to day costs that aren’t always obvious.
“It costs typically somewhere between 20 and 30 cents a kilometre for fuel, tire wear and what we call mileage based depreciation. That is the increase in vehicle maintenance and repair costs and reduction in the value of the vehicle when it’s sold as it’s driven more and more kilometres,” explains Executive Director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute Todd Litman.
Litman says driving five kilometres out of the the way to avoid that toll is likely only saving about $1.50.
He says it’s a question of time or money though for many drivers, estimating about a third are willing to be stuck on the road longer if it means saving a bit of money.
“If your time is not worth very much then you might take that extra drive.”
He says things would change if road tolling was brought in as a system instead of simply on individual projects.
“In a lot of situations we’ve built new bridges or new highways and apply tolls and simply shifted the traffic congestion from that route to other routes. Until we apply more consistent system wide tolling, you’re simply shifting the congestion from one road to another.”
