Fortheﬁrsttimeingenerations,MetroVancouveriteswillbeginpayingatolltocrosstheFraser River.Thattoll,$4foranunregisteredvehicleacrossthenewGoldenEarsBridge,istheﬁrstof many.BoththenewPortMannBridgeandtheplannedreplacementofthePattulloBridge includeplannedtollstopayfortheirconstruction.

Meanwhile,neithertheSea-to-SkyHighwayProject,northenewPittRiverBridge,includetolls.

Nottomentionallexistingcrossingswillremainuntolled.

Naturally,thisleadsmanySouthoftheFrasertoclaiminequity,andrightlyso.

Atthesametime,TransLink,theregionaltransportationauthority,lackstherevenuestopursue
itsplannedsystemexpansion,letalonecontinuewithitscurrentoperations.Ifnewrevenue
streamsarenotfoundby2011,whentheirreservefundsrunout,busservicewouldhavetobecut
inhalf-revertingto1974levels.

TransLinkneedstoraise$300-$500millioninrevenuetocontinueitsexpansionplansforthe

region.Shortofthat,wewillallbestuckinmajorgridlockinthenearfuture.

It’sclearthatthetimeisnowtoﬁndinnovativesolutionstofundourregionaltransportation

system,whileensuringthatthemeansareequitableandaﬀordableforall.

BasedonthelatesttraﬃcdataprovidedbytheBCMinistryofTransportation,ifmostofthe
majorbridgesinMetroVancouverweretoreceivea$1.50toll,oneway,theregionwouldraise
$271.5milliondollarsinoneyear.

Ifthattollwere$2.50,theregionwouldraise$452.5millioninoneyear.

$452.5millioncouldbuy

905newbusesor
9newB-Lineroutesor
113newSkyTraincarsor
15kmofLightRailTransit

Forcomparison’ssake,

thecurrentbussystemhas1509vehicles.
TheSkyTrainsystemcurrentlyhasatotalof210vehicles
andatotallength(theExpoandMillenniumLinescombined)of49.5km.