Notable transit referendum numbers are stacking up against backers of better Metro Vancouver goods and people movement. On the same day that the C.D. Howe Institute released a report calculating significant costs from transportation congestion in the region, results from an Insights West poll showed the referendum’s opposition expanding beyond non-commuters into segments of the population that would benefit the most from a reliably funded transit system.
Benjamin Dachis’ Tackling Traffic: The Economic Cost of Congestion in Metro Vancouver pegs the annual hidden traffic congestion cost at between $500 million and $1.2 billion. That’s atop the $500 million per year the Mayors’ Council says it already costs Metro Vancouver residents.
The hidden costs tabulated in the C.D. Howe study range from decreased access to city services, entertainment and infrastructure to increased difficulty in securing better jobs and training. Dachis concludes that reducing the hidden costs of congestion could raise the annual incomes of workers in the region by up to $950.
Goods movement will have its own set of congestion complications, none of which will promote business in the region. But the proposed 0.5 percentage point addition to the provincial sales tax in Metro Vancouver to fund one-third of the $750 million in annual transit spending over the next 10 years continues to irk a growing number of residents in the region – at least those who have been surveyed.
The Insights West online poll of approximately 1,600 Metro Vancouver adults found “no” sentiments rising (55%, up two percentage points since February) and “yes” backers dropping (33%, down five percentage points).
Polls have proved far from accurate predictors of elections or other contentious vote outcomes in recent years. But the aforementioned numbers opposed to the PST method of paying for transit and transportation improvements should be a concern for businesses not just in Metro Vancouver but in sectors of the wider B.C. and Canadian economy that rely on trade through the province’s Asia Pacific Gateway.
