Suzuki report says 'road pricing' key to cutting greenhouse gases in B.C.
Credit to Author: Tiffany Crawford| Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2019 21:13:10 +0000
Metro Vancouver and the province should “seriously pursue road pricing” as the most effective way to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, says a report from the David Suzuki Foundation.
The report Shifting Gears: Climate Solutions for Transportation in Cities also supports policies that are already in place, such as the province’s requirement of 30 per cent zero emission light vehicle sales by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2040, as well as supporting Canada’s vehicle emissions standard for light-duty vehicles.
However, the report says more work needs to be done to regulate emissions from heavy-duty vehicles and to reduce traffic congestion. It says the best way to do this is to introduce road or mobility pricing, a controversial plan that Metro Vancouver is already considering that would charge drivers a fee for using roads.
Tom Green, a climate solutions policy analyst at the foundation who contributed to the report, said road pricing should be equitable for all communities and complement other solutions such as car-sharing and ride-hailing.
“We have these trends on the horizon for shared mobility and automated vehicles and we need to put in place the mechanisms to make sure that adds to our quality of life and doesn’t just create more congestion. And road pricing is going to be a very important one.”
He said he anticipates opposition to road pricing, but once the cities begin to use the funds to create more rapid transit options, car-share and ride-hailing programs, support will grow.
“Stockholm is the perfect example. Before the city rolled out road pricing there was a lot of opposition, but nine months later there was strong support for it. Travel times decreased and so if you really needed to use your car to get somewhere you were not stuck in traffic,” he said.
“If you are going down the road-pricing approach, you have to offer alternatives.”
In a report last year, Metro Vancouver’s Mobility Pricing Independent Commission estimated drivers could pay between $3 and $8 a day if road pricing is introduced.
The report caused concern for many mayors, who worried road pricing would not be fair, especially for people who live in areas without rapid transit like White Rock, Delta and Langley. Others argued it was a good way to replace the gas tax which is declining as drivers switch to electric vehicles, to reduce GHG emissions and to deal with gridlock.
When that report came out, there was little political will to implement road pricing. But that may have changed as scientists from around the world have intensified warnings about the climate emergency.
Several dire reports have been published since the commission’s report, including one in October 2018 that said there is only 12 years to avoid the catastrophic effect of allowing global warming to exceed 1.5 C. That report was followed by one from the World Health Organization that said emissions from fossil fuels are a major contributor to air pollution and human-caused climate change poses a serious health threat. The latest report from the United Nations Environment Programme, published earlier this week, found that the planet will warm by 3.2 C by 2100 unless efforts to reduce GHG emissions are tripled.
There has been a change in municipal government and a declaration of a climate emergency at Metro Vancouver.
The chair of the Metro Vancouver climate action committee, Adriane Carr, said the region is creating a Climate 2050 plan. She said the region will start rolling out that in January or February. From there, a report will be completed sometime in 2020.
As part of that plan, staff are looking at options for road pricing and will be consulting with the public on ways to make it fair.
“We can’t talk about climate change without talking about equity,” said Carr, adding they will look at different options, for example possibly exempting some drivers or lower income families from the fees.
It doesn’t mean mobility pricing is a fait accompli, but Carr noted the region will need to address ways to replace the declining gas tax revenue as more people switch to electric vehicles.
New Westminster Mayor Jonathan Jonathan Coté said road pricing remains a very polarizing issue with the region’s mayors and with the public, so he anticipates some political challenges. He said TransLink is looking into how to address the regional and social equity issues.
“The gas tax is not a sustainable source of revenue and mobility pricing should be on the table as an option,” he said, adding while there is a growing recognition that bold action needs to be taken, it will take time and more public engagement.
— With a file from Jennifer Saltman
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