Burnaby Board of Trade calls for revenue-neutral mobility pricing ahead of today's TransLink report
Board of Trade report focuses on congestion and revenue neutrality
The Burnaby Board of Trade has released its own report on mobility pricing, ahead of a potential road pricing scheme set to be released at the TransLink Mayors' Council meeting Thursday morning.
For the past couple of months, a task force of Burnaby Board of Trade members has met with experts and identified seven fundamental principles, if mobility pricing is to work.
The report argues addressing congestion by reducing traffic at peak times should be the primary objective of any proposed road pricing system.
Board President and CEO Paul Holden said that congestion and revenue neutrality are the two main priorities.
"The price differential that's often required to change behaviour doesn't need to be that significant and that's why we started to approach this from the revenue neutrality viewpoint," he said.
"We felt you really don't have to do too much from a pricing point of view to change peoples' behaviour."
Mobility pricing report coming Thursday
Since October 2017, an independent commission has been studying how mobility pricing can address congestion in Metro Vancouver. Its report is set to be released Thursday at 10:30 a.m.
The commission focused on "decongestion charging," which means a variety of fees are on the table, including traditional road tolls, as well as distance or time-based charges and costs for driving in certain locations at certain times of the day.
The commission is independent, and it will be up to TransLink and the Mayors' Council to accept or reject its recommendations.
Ultimately, any new fees would have to be approved by the provincial government.
With files from Belle Puri