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“We have these trends on the horizon for shared mobility and automated vehicles and we need to put in place the mechanisms to make sure that adds to our quality of life and doesn’t just create more congestion. And road pricing is going to be a very important one.”

He said he anticipates opposition to road pricing, but once the cities begin to use the funds to create more rapid transit options, car-share and ride-hailing programs, support will grow.

“Stockholm is the perfect example. Before the city rolled out road pricing there was a lot of opposition, but nine months later there was strong support for it. Travel times decreased and so if you really needed to use your car to get somewhere you were not stuck in traffic,” he said.

“If you are going down the road-pricing approach, you have to offer alternatives.”

In a report last year, Metro Vancouver’s Mobility Pricing Independent Commission estimated drivers could pay between $3 and $8 a day if road pricing is introduced.

The report caused concern for many mayors, who worried road pricing would not be fair, especially for people who live in areas without rapid transit like White Rock, Delta and Langley. Others argued it was a good way to replace the gas tax which is declining as drivers switch to electric vehicles, to reduce GHG emissions and to deal with gridlock.

When that report came out, there was little political will to implement road pricing. But that may have changed as scientists from around the world have intensified warnings about the climate emergency.