Metro Vancouver motorists opposed to paying Golden Ears or Port Mann bridge tolls won't like hearing that more road-pricing schemes are likely in the future for the region.
But that's the message being delivered by the organizers of a conference devoted to tolling being held this week in Vancouver.
"We are big believers in the user-pays principle," Patrick Jones, CEO of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA), told Business in Vancouver.
Compared with other jurisdictions, the Vancouver area has few tolls on its road systems. Currently, five Metro Vancouver bridges are tolled. Other cities, such as Washington, D.C., and Santiago, Chile, have tolled entire roadways. Some of the systems use sophisticated technology to charge drivers more to use express lanes or to travel at peak times.
"We're trying to promote efficient transportation, sustainable transportation," Jones said, "and have the funds that support transportation come from the people who use those facilities."
Recently, TransLink and its mayors' council have advocated for a road pricing system to raise badly needed transportation funds. Ideally, that system would include transit fares as well as road tolling, said Bob Paddon, TransLink's vice-president of strategic planning.
"If you look at our transit system, there's not much of an incentive for anyone to travel in an off-peak time," said Paddon, who will take part in a panel session at the convention.
"Whereas in other cities … you have incentives for people to travel at different times during the day. In Washington, D.C., on their metro, they pay for distance."
The broken funding model so well known to Metro Vancouverites is also in play south of the border, said Jones. There, a federal fuel tax no longer covers the cost of maintaining and updating roads. There is little political will to raise the tax; at the same time, improving fuel economy is reducing the amount of revenue the tax raises.
British Columbia's gas tax faces similar challenges, including the fact that the carbon tax has successfully reduced driving.
The IBTTA sees tolls as the stable – and fair – funding solution. According to Jones, technological advancements that have improved the customer experience have also made tolling more palatable.
"People saw toll roads as a barrier to transportation because you had to stop and wait," Jones said. "Now, with all-electronic tolling and easier ability to implement tolling … tolling is no longer the barrier."
Tolling systems put a concrete value on time savings – which many drivers, especially trucking companies, are willing to pay for, Jones said.
That's why the Transportation Investment Corp. (TI), the Crown corporation that operates the Port Mann bridge, has a staff team and specialized reporting for commercial trucking.
"One of the things we heard loud and clear from the BC Trucking Association is that time savings are really, really important," said TI's CEO Mike Proudfoot.
"Particularly for the big fleets, every time you can save a half an hour that makes a big difference to the bottom line."
Todd Stone, B.C.'s transportation minister, will also speak at the conference, but was not available for comment by press time.
The conference runs September 23 to 25.
Tolling business snapshot
Along with governments and transportation authorities, the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association's convention will attract major multinational corporations that have made tolling their business.
Some are engineering firms, while others have developed specialized billing technologies for toll systems.
Toll roads are increasingly valued as moneymaking assets. In 2012, the Canada Pension Plan paid $1.1 billion to acquire a minority stake in five toll roads in Chile from Atlantia Group.
