Tolls should:
- be time of use. A useful feature of tolls is that they discourage use. Different rates for peak/off-peak/night-time help to balance load and reduce congestion. Essentially the same as the smart meters for electricity.
- not have max prices, unlimited use plans, etc. If you do this, for heavy users, we'll lose the feature in point one. This also subsidizes heavy use. If anything, every car user to get some a reduced (possibly zero) rate for the first few kilometers per month. This way occasional use could be inexpensive or free, but heavy/daily use would not.
-Depending on the goal of tolls, the toll rate can be near zero or zero at night, depending on actual levels of congestion. If we want to ensure that tolls cover cost of wear-and-tear, then one could set a minimum per-km rate.
-Heavy vehicles such as large trucks should not get a discount. If anything, they should pay a higher per km rate (which I believe is already the case for 407) to account for their higher wear and space requirements. Besides, any sane logistics operation would likely be willing to pay tolls if it meant their trucks (and drivers) were not sitting in traffic. Trucks already face a cost of upwards of $1/km with fuel, capital cost and wages factored in, which rises rapidly when the truck is travelling at only 15 km/h. On top of this, more certainty about travel times allows smaller fleets and improved service to their customers.
As far as phasing in tolls, I think we'd be best off jumping in with both feet and tolling all the 400-series and limited access highways in the GTHA (including Linc in Hamilton, etc.) but starting at a very low rate, like a couple cents per km. I'm sure some will be outraged anyway, but I think most people will shrug if it adds $0.50 per day to their cost of driving. I'm sure that Metrolinx will also be able to make the case that, at least initially, all the proceeds from the toll will be less than what is being invested in highways in the GTHA on an annual basis. Of course, it's all something of a shell game, since it all goes into general revenues and those highway improvements would happen anyway, so that the tolls are really providing funding for capital expenditure on transit.