You did, however, state (in quite a strong) fashion that the Mississauga-Oshawa commuters were the source of our congestion (unless I read that wrong....in which case I apologize).
If I did state that, it wasn't what I meant to say ... I was being lazy.
London? We're those road tolls? I thought they were a congestion charge around the city?
They were congestion charges. If you crossed into a certain part of the city, you had to pay the toll, which was a congestion charge. You get the same effect on regular toll roads as well. Which is why the 407 actually moves in traffic - though the off-peak pricing is badly done in order to maximize profit, rather than control traffic.
London also has a far more developed transit system offering far more people an alternative method of bypassing the charge.
The tube and railway network were in dire straights when the congestion charge was introduced almost a decade ago. Poorly maintained, frequently out-of-service, overcrowded. I don't think anyone in London thinks they have a superior transit system. They complain incessantly about how poor and broken it is. Though they have put a lot of money in over the last decade, with a lot more over the next decade. Unfortunately the reliability improvements and upgrades to the Tube have resulted in significant ridership increases, so the congestion is still very bad - and worse then ever, the moment there is the slightest delay.
As you said above...the flaked about tolls don't match the $.17/km cost of GO you calculated. Tolls in The GTA may be an effective way to raise revenue but they will not magically make congestion disappear.
Then you raise the toll rates until they do. It's a far more effective tool than simply raising gas taxes, which does nothing to control which route people take, and psychologically isn't as effective at discouraging long commutes.
That being said, I doubt that any government is going to have the balls to put tolls in, in my lifetime. I'd expect a suite of other charges, such as vehicle licence fees, sales taxes, gas taxes, parking taxes (heck, raise the Green P rates ... hard to understand why better staffed, better maintained, city lots seem to undercut adjacent fly-by-night lots), property taxes, etc. to be employed rather than a toll, except on new facilities.
) will pay more to get to King and Bay than someone from Whitby. This is more appropriate for cities with congestion leading to the core. I think this is more descriptive of the Toronto situation.