Tolls place unfair burden on drivers

Re Hard choices on gridlock, Editorial, Oct. 4 The Star’s advocacy of road tolls as a mechanism to pay for public transit improvements is unfortunate. It places an unfair burden on people — many of them living on modest incomes — who have little choice but to drive to work because public transit cannot get them to work in a reasonable amount of time. All of us who drive cause congestion and pollution, whether it’s on major highways or on local streets in any municipality in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. Penalizing one group of drivers with road tolls and not another equally pollut- ing group clogging the roads in the region is unfair. A mix of gasoline taxes across the region, and a vehicle registration surcharge based on the number of kilometres driven is the administratively simplest (zero cost), most effective and fairest way to fund transit. Gas and vehicle registration taxes, if they are significant enough, would have the effect of enticing people to use public transit as services improve, and/or to find jobs closer to home. The Ontario government, through Metrolinx, is working on a $50-billion, 25-year funding strategy for regional transit projects, and local transit operators are begging for funds as well. The average driver or vehicle owner will be paying several hundred dollars a year to solve the transportation mess we’ve created. And it’s a mess we can’t afford not to fix.

The good news is that as transit improvements kick in and congestion decreases, the savings per household grow. Fewer kilometres driven will mean enormous savings in gasoline costs and, if households can reduce the number of vehicles, thousands of dollars can be saved. John Stillich, Executive Director, Sustainable Urban Development Association (SUDA), Mississauga