Tolls for Pattullo replacement need to be low: Delta Mayor
Posted March 5, 2014 9:52 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
DELTA (NEWS1130) – The Mayor of Delta isn’t opposed to New Westminster’s proposal to replace the aging Pattullo with a toll bridge, but Lois Jackson is worried high toll rates will cause traffic chaos on the Alex Fraser.
Jackson says the Province and local municipalities need to get together and revisit how much drivers should pay to cross bridges. If toll rates remain high with additional pay routes added, Jackson warns the Alex Fraser Bridge could become so congested, using it will be nearly impossible.
“It takes a long time now to get to where you want to go, yet we’ve got other bridges sitting fairly, I shouldn’t say empty, but certainly far less traffic being observed on those routes that have a toll,” says Jackson.
Using the Golden Ears Bridge costs drivers in cars, SUVs or minivans $4.25 each crossing, with trucks dinged as much as $7.15. The new Port Mann tolls raised in December now cost most passenger vehicles $3.00 each time, with trucks shelling out as much as $9.00.
Jackson says everyone should understand infrastructure upgrades need to be paid for somehow, and tolls are an easy solution in a time of tight budgets for cities and the province. But she says costs shouldn’t be so prohibitive. “We already have the Golden Ears and Port Mann, if the Pattullo was also tolled and say George Massey Replacement was also tolled, maybe we can get down to a toll that is 50 cents a crossing as opposed to $4.50.”
Jackson would like to see a system where drivers crossing every bridge in the Lower Mainland pay a small toll to go towards bridge upgrades. “I hear people in the North Shore saying ‘why should we pay for lanes of tolling on the North Shore,’ but those bridges are going to have to be replaced and upgraded, and there’s going to have to be big money going into them someday, so it all works out. If everybody pays something, then we’ll have an ability to upgrade the whole system as far as crossing water is concerned in the Lower Mainland, and I think that would be far more equitable than what we’re facing today.”
She also believes Victoria should get rid of provincial legislation requiring one route to remain free. According to Jackson, many countries in the world toll all routes heading into cities.
