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No hike in peak-time bridge tolls
By DAVENE JEFFREY Staff Reporter
Wed, Nov 17 - 7:26 AM

Commuters who travel the bridges spanning Halifax Harbour won’t be paying high peak-time tolls.

Halifax Harbour Bridges has released results of a study looking into ways to lighten traffic during rush hour on the two bridges. In particular, the study considered the impact of imposing peak-period tolls and one-way tolling.

About 32 million vehicles cross the harbour each year, with weekday crossings often exceeding 100,000, Halifax Harbour Bridges numbers show.

But to get commuters to travel at non-peak periods or to use Metro Transit’s buses and ferries would require a huge jump in tolls, the study found.

"I was a bit surprised," said Halifax Harbour Bridges general manager and CEO Steve Snider in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Even an increase to $3 from the current 60-cent toll for Macpass users would only result in a drop of about 15 per cent during rush-hour traffic at 7-9 a.m. and 3-6 p.m.

"A 15 per cent shift would basically be unnoticed by commuters," Snider said.

According to the study, the only way to significantly cut rush-hour traffic on the bridges would be to impose a $6 toll.

"At this stage, the potential benefit of peak-period tolling is not enough to justify the cost to our users," Snider said in a release.

One-way tolling has also been ruled out by the commission after the study showed it could lead to increased congestion in the non-tolled direction and would likely cut bridge revenues.

It’s the commission’s mandate to provide safe, efficient and reliable crossings at an appropriate cost, Snider said.

And at this point there’s not much else Halifax Harbour Bridges can do, he said.

The answer is to improve the transit system and carpooling, the bridge boss said.

To get commuters out of their cars, transit buses would have to have priority on city streets and transport passengers to their destinations faster, he said.

The $175,000 study took about eight months, Snider said.

Bridge commissioner Coun. Sue Uteck (Northwest Arm-South End) defended the study, calling it a "worthwhile exercise."

For Uteck, the solution is to buy more ferries and create more parking at the terminal lots.

Both Uteck and Snider say a third harbour crossing, be it a bridge or tunnel, would be too expensive, with a projected cost of more than $1 billion.

"We’ve got to do a better job of providing alternative transportation and we haven’t. We got denied funding for the Woodside ferry. It’s 35 years old, and not only do we need to replace it, we need two of them," Uteck said.

And to fund that infrastructure, Uteck suggests imposing a toll of 25 cents per car at the Armdale Rotary. "We’re at capacity right now with what we can afford to fund. So we have to find alternative sources of funding."

In the meantime, Halifax Harbour Bridges is looking to increase its revenues through general toll increases. Starting Monday, the commission will appear before the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board to present its case to have tolls increased 25 cents to $1 for commuters who pay cash.

The commission wants Macpass users to pay a 20-cent increase to 80 cents per crossing. If approved, the increases will be effective Feb. 1, 2011, Snider said.

The last time tolls were increased — to 75 cents from 50 cents — was in 1992.
( djeffrey@herald.ca )

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