I hear so much about tolling the bridges in Metro Vancouver. I don’t see that it has been very well thought out so far.
If people were able to pay a flat fee for six months or a year at a time, they would be very inclined to use the bridges as much as possible in order to feel they are getting their money’s worth. This could be done by phoning in with your credit or debit card, which would save some trees. (Sending out bills to people for $3.95 is so wasteful in my opinion).
The amount you pay could be based on how many bridges you would use regularly. If there was a need to detour occasionally, to avoid accidents or to do errands, that could be included in the fee. If the licence was found to be using a “not included in your fee” bridge often, then an additional amount could be added when your six-month or one-year fee time span was up.
We need to get people on board with using these new bridges or what is the point of building them? People just want to feel they are getting a fair deal.
Wendy Cope, Delta
Here’s betting this is a good idea
Why not have a monthly lottery of all active B.C. licence plate numbers – a plate number drawn monthly.
If you want to enter, buy a ticket at a lotto retailer and TransLink gets the usual percentage of the ticket money. I’ll leave it to the lotto experts to determine the price of tickets and payouts.
Maybe then we can forget another goofy road tax.
Lawrence Burrus, Surrey
