Congestion tolling comes into effect in New York without issue.
Note this is the first city in the USA to adopt the measure.
Will this lead to Australian cities to adopt the same measure to raise funds for better PT along with better cross city connections
New York’s Congestion Pricing Program Starts Without Hiccups
The tolling program, the first of its kind in the country, will face its first big test with rush hour traffic on Monday morning. The new fees are intended to push more people to use trains and buses, and raise billions of dollars to improve mass transit.
We’d need to seriously improve public transport in Brisbane before making such a move. When coverage, frequency, and span of services to so many areas is so poor, it would disadvantage a lot of people with no other realistic transport options.
I am talking about crossing the Storey Bridge and charging a one-way directional charge only, say 50c. This would help with restoration works as well as raise funds to improve PT. The Rex should also have a 50c toll as well. That would cover people travelling through the city.
But the Story Bridge itself is a bypass of the CBD proper. If you toll it, you’re just going to push traffic across the Captain Cook Bridge and up Turbot Street.
As much as the river makes for a convenient barrier, I feel like there is a bit of an imbalance in not putting a pricing point on entry to the CBD from the north as well.
Certainly agree with the sentiments about needing improved public transport. I think that there probably needs to be a discount or exemption for service vehicles though. Tradespeople for example can’t be lugging tools and air compressors or welders on buses and trains. It shouldn’t penalise people who do legitimately need to bring a vehicle in.
Part of this though would be having to provide better park and ride options at key points (particularly train and busway stations). This was one of the big failings of the South East Busway (case in point, Eight Mile Plains outgrew itself pretty much from day one).