For whom the bridge tolls

The case for congestion pricing in Halifax

By Deny Sullivan

After 70 years, drivers crossing the bridges in Halifax no longer have to pay a toll. During the election, premier Tim Houston pitched toll removal as a benefit to drivers; they could save time by not stopping at the toll barriers. This didn’t last long. Drivers recognized that Halifax’s traffic problems are the roads leading to the bridges, North Street, or Wyse Road, or the jumbled Windsor Street exchange, not the bridges themselves. When the tolls were removed, the argument shifted to saving drivers money, in two ways. First, drivers from out of town didn’t have to pay a toll to get into Halifax. And second, that commuters in suburbs like Fairview didn’t have to pay a toll to drive to work in Burnside.

But why have tolls at all?

Tolls force users to pay for costly infrastructure (the user-pays principle Halifax uses with Transit), or tolls can be used to reduce demand for overloaded roads (congestion relief).