VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Vancouver is known for its horrible gridlock and a new study has found that nationwide, congestion is costing our economy billions of dollars.

The folks behind the study say one of the most effective solutions is road tolls.

Trevor Melanson with Canadian Business Magazine says other solutions include a sales tax hike, a carbon tax dedicated to funding transit projects, and vehicle registration fees. He says those are the types of solutions happening in other countries.

“In 2006, if you drove your car into the downtown of Stockholm, cameras would take a picture of your licence plate and you’d be charged a couple of bucks for going downtown,” he explains. “When they brought this idea in, it was a pilot project; it was just going to run for seven months. The disapproval rating was 75 per cent. That’s really high.”

“By the end of that pilot project, traffic had fallen, I think, 22 per cent. Imagine traffic around Vancouver dropped one-quarter and how quickly everyone would move again.”

Los Angeles, which is often said to have the worst traffic in North America, recently approved a tax hike to help fight gridlock and Melanson says with Vancouver growing so fast, we’re falling behind the rest of the pack.

Melanson adds better transit would mean more people may be willing to travel further for work; he says that means a bigger talent pool, increased productivity, and more take-home money for you.