Half of Canadians OK with More Toll Roads, Bridges

Poll of the Day: More and more people – and especially urban dwellers - are OK with cities charging for the use of their roads to ease gridlock and save money.

Half of Canadians are open to introducing toll roads as a way to offset the costs associated with building and maintaining transit infrastructure, according to a new CBC poll. The online poll asked if people were willing to pay for roads if it would make their commute faster, and 50 per cent responded yes. Forty-three per cent of those surveyed said no, while the remainder were undecided. The same survey found that residents in Canada's three largest cities – Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver – were overwhelmingly in favour of tolls on any new roads or bridges, as 76 per cent of respondents in those cities answered in the affirmative. As for existing roads and bridges, that number decreased to 56 per cent. The poll comes as cities such as Toronto search for ways to generate revenue and trim expenses while tackling commute times that are among the world's worst.