June 5, 2017

Twinned Tweets — Road Pricing

The (presumably Federal) Gov’t of New Zealand is moving towards road tolls, especially in Auckland.   With thanks to Isaac Davison in the New Zealand Herald.

Its U-turn came after a joint Government-Auckland Council report showed the city would grow by 700,000 people over the next 30 years. The report said tolls of between 3c and 40c a kilometre would help reduce congestion.
Bridges said at the time that tolling in Auckland could be done by GPS satellite, as opposed to toll gantries or cameras.
GPS is considered the gold standard for road pricing, because it does not require as much physical infrastructure and is effective in changing behaviour, rather than just collecting revenue. . . .
. . .  Labour’s Auckland and transport spokesman Phil Twyford said his party supported road pricing because it meant the transport system was not “subsidising urban sprawl”.
But he said the Government first needed to invest more in public transport so commuters had “genuine alternatives” to driving once tolls were in place.

Meanwhile, thanks to CKNW.com, we hear that Metro Vancouver is stepping in the same direction.  Expect details tomorrow (Tuesday), with recommendations and findings in early 2018.

The Metro Vancouver Mayors and the TransLink Board will announce terms of reference for an independent commission that will study mobility pricing Tuesday.
. . . In the run-up to the election the NDP told TransLink it was supportive of mobility pricing and open to new funding models, while the Greens have been explicit about using mobility pricing to cut congestion and pay for any new road infrastructure.

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