Congestion Charge Lite
Like NYC but less ambitious...
New York Cities congestion charge came into effect a few hours ago. It will enabled billions of funds to be collected for the New York transit system, including massive renovations, a new subway like, electric busses and more. At the same time it will make the cities core more efficient by allowing surface transit to move faster. It will also improve response times for emergency vehicles.
New York, London and Paris have made massive moves in prioritizing more efficient modes of transport in their cores. Maybe Toronto should look at something similar, or maybe something slightly different.
Obviously a congestion charge in Toronto could be designed in many ways, including charging tolls on the DVP/QEW, or for entering the core, or even the area south of St. Clair or Eglinton once the LRT opens.
However Toronto could also go another route, which would be to implement a lite congestion charge on roads that already have higher orders of transit on them. This would effectively mean that driving on any road with a streetcar or subway on it would result in a small charge (suggested to be the same as a TTC fare - ie 3.35/day).
This would keep roads like king and queen clear of cars that don’t need to be on them, and allow for replacement bus services in the face of subway failures or streetcar right of way issues.
The money collected would go to building the lakeshore east and west LRT, as well as improvements to the streetcar experience, and expand the network where possible.
Council should:
Direct staff to explore various congestion charge system designs for Toronto, and produce a report on the benefits of various options