Comment 87682

By rprouse (registered) | Posted April 05, 2013 at 15:05:29

While I agree that we should implement congestion charges, I do have one concern. I commute a short distance to work in Burlington from Hamilton Beach. Whenever there is a slowdown on the highway, every east/west road in Burlington becomes gridlocked. If there was a financial disincentive to use the 403 and QEW, would it not then cause people to use alternate routes to avoid the tolls? If this happens, doesn't it unfairly punish people who make the responsible choice of living as close as possible to work? Could it also make commuting by bike more dangerous and divert traffic to residential areas?

Wouldn't it be better to figure out a way to charge drivers for the length of their commute no matter what route they take instead of targeting certain roads? I am not sure how we do this though. That is why I like London's scheme where there is a fee for entering the core. Maybe we could set up a similar system for each of the cities in the GTA, but vary the cost of entering each core either based on the distance to the home address of the owner of the plate, or based on the number of zones you pass through on route to your destination zone?

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