Mobility Pricing

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by dreambrother808

Downtown draws people from all over the region. The businesses aren’t just supported by that 180,000. The practical reality is that downtown businesses would suffer to some degree and if you support this you have to accept that as a necessary consequence rather than pretending it won’t happen.

I tend to believe that it would look more like a slowdown or pause in growth than a contraction, because these kinds of shifts occur over many years. But in no way will it make a ghost town out of the downtown core. Vancouver has too many natural attractions and venues around the downtown peninusla for it to wither.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by aberdeen5698

I tend to believe that it would look more like a slowdown or pause in growth than a contraction,

Um, I don't see how any of those three are a good thing for downtown.

[scottN]

Originally Posted by jhausner

I'll give you an example, if I'm a delivery company outside Vancouver and I only have to pay mobility charges to deliver in Vancouver, would I not decide to either add a surcharge which could reduce my business, or not deliver to Vancouver, or eat it which means I lose out because I'm not getting benefits of reduced property tax being outside Vancouver?

[Snip]

Presently there already is a big penalty for sending a delivery downtown - the time spend sitting in traffic. If you are making a commercial delivery, then the congestion fee ought to save you more in time from reduced congestion than the cost of the fee (otherwise it isn't working and ought to be scrapped entirely).

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by scottN

[Snip]

Presently there already is a big penalty for sending a delivery downtown - the time spend sitting in traffic. If you are making a commercial delivery, then the congestion fee ought to save you more in time from reduced congestion than the cost of the fee (otherwise it isn't working and ought to be scrapped entirely).

Or you could just elimiate the city-caused obstacles that cause congestion. Things like two lanes devoted to parking on many of downtown's major streets. There's plenty of offstreet parking but the city wants to have its cake and its meter money too.

[dreambrother808]

Originally Posted by scottN

Presently there already is a big penalty for sending a delivery downtown - the time spend sitting in traffic.

I drive to work downtown everyday. I am never sitting in traffic. Go at the peak of rush hour and it’s more painful but even then it’s manageable. This perception that congestion has reached the point where this tax is necessary is delusional to me.

Have people never experienced real traffic, real congestion? Have they only driven in Vancouver?

[zahav]

Originally Posted by dreambrother808

I drive to work downtown everyday. I am never sitting in traffic. Go at the peak of rush hour and it’s more painful but even then it’s manageable. This perception that congestion has reached the point where this tax is necessary is delusional to me.

Have people never experienced real traffic, real congestion? Have they only driven in Vancouver?

I agree, I live near Cambie and 16, so I rarely drive downtown. But the few times I do, it is never total gridlock. If anything the traffic is caused by way too many lights between 16th and the bridge, it's like perpetual intersections. But this mobility tax is really better for places like LA, not here