It’s good news. And where transit is considered, we can always use good news.
The agreement between Surrey and New Westminster on a four-lane tolled bridge to replace the current crumbling bridge means that in the next decade there may be some relief for New Westminster residents.
Now, that’s if all goes according to plan. And, meanwhile, TransLink is proceeding with rehabilitating the current bridge. It will be resurfaced starting in April. That work, which will also require some closures of the bridge, will give city residents a bit of a break as well.
The issue of tolling bridges is still a hot potato though.
As Mayor Jonathan Cote has pointed out, when only one Fraser River crossing is tolled, commuters naturally just use the untolled bridges. If the provincial government continues with its current policy of having non-tolled bridges where it is ‘feasible’ one wonders how the government will define feasible.
If the Alex Fraser bridge remains as the untolled bridge across the Fraser while, or after, the Pattullo and new Massey bridges are being built, surely that will create a huge bottleneck. And while politicians south of the Fraser were generally opposed to forcing Surrey residents to pay to cross the river, the current Surrey mayor and other mayors are interested in developing a mobility pricing system that charges drivers by time of day and distance travelled. It would be an interesting alternative to the current flat per-vehicle per-crossing tolls on bridges such as the Golden Ears.
And let’s face it. With the incredible housing prices on this side of the Fraser compared to the prices south of the Fraser, more and more of us may be forking out more cash to cross those new bridges.
