Quote:
Originally Posted by OtrainUser
European cities have much better urban planning than Ottawa does. Stockholm Sweden which has similar size in population like Ottawa has a congestion charge and it works fine there. There is no reason why Ottawa shouldn't impliment the same thing especially when there are concerns about the environment and the impending carbon taxes.
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You said it yourself: European cities have far better planning. This includes Stockholm.
That better planning and a bunch of other factors allow the congestion charge to work well there.
I am generally willing to give these things a shot but I am skeptical of its suitability for a city like Ottawa (at least at this point in its history) and the use of Stockholm as an example that proves it would work.
Stockholm has a number of factors that give it a much higher degree of attractivity and unavoidability, compared to Ottawa.
For starters the area where the charge is in effect is not only the downtown of the capital, it's also the downtown of the largest city in the country. For Swedes it's arguably downtown Toronto and downtown Ottawa rolled into one. Most of the mostest of the most that happens in that country happens there. It's also a totally complete downtown from A to Z. OTOH downtown Ottawa doesn't even have a hospital or a first-run movie theatre.
Don't get me wrong - I think Ottawa is a pretty darn good downtown for a North American city. But it's not strong enough IMO to take the risk of a congestion charge and the impact it might have on driving people away from it.