The question facing Metro Vancouver has also been raised in municipalities across North America: how to make road users pay. Is tolling all bridges the answer to persistent congestion?
In a recent poll of 350 Metro Vancouver residents conducted between October 12-17, Mustel Group, in partnership with BC Business, asked two simple questions about bridge tolling. “We knew that there was going to be a significant portion of people that just object to tolling completely,” says Evi Mustel, principal of the Mustel Group. “I think that no matter what governments we have, it’s unlikely that we’d ever go back to a system of no tolling, but we thought we’d just ask that question at the beginning so they could get their say in. Then we followed up with the second question: If you had to select one tolling option, which one would you choose?”