12-16-2016, 11:14 AM
Canard - I drive a pretty old Hybrid Civic. It's the lame hybrid. To be honest, my main motivation at the time was that it made sense with Government incentives (it wasn't bought in Ontario) but its not that much more efficient than a regular old Honda Civic.
MidTowner - I hear what you're saying about other types of vehicles. But I still look at it as a toll road is catching a much smaller percentage of all drivers than a gasoline tax. And I think that will be the case for the foreseeable future (barring implementing an area toll like Dan mentions or a much faster uptake in non-gasoline vehicles). You could also find ways to charge those other people (extra registration fees or taxes, surcharge on electricity for electric car owners, etc.), although its definitely complicated and there are a lot of factors to consider.
Dan, I'm also fine with CBD congestion charges where they make sense. But to me its more about managing congestion than funding the infrastructure.
I'm pretty against "no free parking anywhere". I think you're dis-incentivizing the wrong thing and punishing the wrong people. Especially in this day and age of online shopping and next-day delivery. Similar to tolls, I think paid parking mostly makes sense as a way to manage usage. I think in our case it probably makes more sense to encourage a few easy-to-get-to parking locations and then make the CBD really easy for pedestrians to get around from those locations and from public transportation. It feels like we're moving in this direction?
MidTowner - I hear what you're saying about other types of vehicles. But I still look at it as a toll road is catching a much smaller percentage of all drivers than a gasoline tax. And I think that will be the case for the foreseeable future (barring implementing an area toll like Dan mentions or a much faster uptake in non-gasoline vehicles). You could also find ways to charge those other people (extra registration fees or taxes, surcharge on electricity for electric car owners, etc.), although its definitely complicated and there are a lot of factors to consider.
Dan, I'm also fine with CBD congestion charges where they make sense. But to me its more about managing congestion than funding the infrastructure.
I'm pretty against "no free parking anywhere". I think you're dis-incentivizing the wrong thing and punishing the wrong people. Especially in this day and age of online shopping and next-day delivery. Similar to tolls, I think paid parking mostly makes sense as a way to manage usage. I think in our case it probably makes more sense to encourage a few easy-to-get-to parking locations and then make the CBD really easy for pedestrians to get around from those locations and from public transportation. It feels like we're moving in this direction?