It’s no secret, commuters (who drive) in this town have it rough. Granted that compared to MANY other North American cities, it’s a walk in the park but when there’s a problem on an artery, it pretty much ripples throughout the rest of the Lower Mainland and everyone feels it.

The Port Mann Bridge is going to be twinned to help congestion on Hwy 1. I think the move they did several years ago to “expand” the bridge by one lane, in one direction was pretty wasteful. Sure you have an HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lane heading South/East but the problem in the other direction is a strong, persistent one. They should have at least made it a counter-flow HOV lane, but I digress.

Expanding the Trans-Canada corridor is not expected to reduce congestion on other routes such as Highway 99 south of Vancouver, but tolls on key routes could convince some motorists to leave their cars at home if alternatives are available [vancouver sun]

The entire project is being called, the Gateway Program [gov bc]. It would also include widening the #1 by 2013 and eventually a perimiter road along the Fraser River. With it all, comes the tolls.

The Gateway Program is planned as a public-private partnership (P3), and private road tolling is big business. From the point of view of demand management strategy, tolling is a good thing and discourages car use. But if a Port Mann toll or distance tolling on Highway 1 is privately operated, it may conflict with system-wide, regional demand management efforts [the tyee]

Amidst plenty of controversy, the news today is that they’re looking at putting MORE tolls around the Lower Mainland, not JUST to on the infrastructures.

This ‘make you pay’ program would be brought to us by Translink, who is currently our overlord of roads, bridges and transit. They’re pushing for the tolls (duh) but Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon just wants to stay the course.

The toll plan faces several obstacles, including a provincial policy that restricts tolls to new facilities, and only when a free alternative route is available…Falcon has opposed regional tolling and said the government will stick with its policy [vancouver sun]

So what do you think? Does it make a toll-payer/tax-payer feel better about putting money into something new and shiny rather than an old route they’ve taken for the last 15 years? With wider roads and more bridges comes more traffic, but with that traffic comes a more populous region and more money dumped into the economy. Time to start taking the bus.

There are so many pros and cons and I have my opinions but alas, I haven’t been a ‘bridge n’ tunnel’ commuter for about 18 months now so what do you commuters think?

Photo Property of enol on Flickr