Canadians willing to pay road tolls, poll suggests

...Road tolls have long been a taboo topic for many politicians, but it appears Canadians are not as averse to the idea...

On average, city commuters appear willing to pay up to $3 a day for road tolls, according to the poll...

Seventy-six per cent of those surveyed in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver said tolls would be acceptable on new bridges or roads to pay for the cost of building them.

By comparison, only 56 per cent of the city dwellers deemed it acceptable to add a toll to an existing bridge or road to pay for needed repairs.

Using tolls to pay for transit upgrades garnered even less support, at 47 per cent.

Whereas road and bridge tolls are more commonplace in Europe and the United States, only 18 tolls exist across Canada — the majority of which are for bridges and tunnels straddling the Canada-U.S. border.

With cash-strapped governments struggling to pay for growing and crumbling infrastructure, that could soon change.

And the Leger poll suggests that many Canadians living in congested cities would be open to the idea. Most of those surveyed agreed that the use of tolls would place the "financial burden where it belongs."...

Adding new lanes, overpasses and ramps is no longer an option to improve road congestion, warns Ottavio Galella, a traffic expert and engineer who touts tolls as a way to help change motorist behaviour.

"We need a completely different approach to get rid of gridlock in our cities," says Galella.

Galella says Canada is trailing behind other countries in the push for toll roads, which could help reduce strain on roads and increase overall efficiency.

Most commuters in Canada's largest cities agree that road tolls would encourage drivers to take public transit, according to the poll.

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