OTTAWA, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Canadians are warming to the idea of toll roads, the results of an online poll released Monday indicate.
The survey, conducted exclusively for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. by Leger Marketing, found half of Canadians would favor tolls to pay for roads that ease gridlock and shorten their commutes.
Invoking tolls to pay for new bridges or roads was viewed favorably by 76 percent of those surveyed in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Fifty-six percent of the city dwellers said they would go along with a toll on an existing bridge or road to pay for repairs. Forty-seven percent favor using tolls to pay for transit upgrades.
Canada has only 18 tolls, with the majority of them for bridges and tunnels straddling the Canada-U.S. border.
Canadian politicians have shied away from expanding the toll road system, CBC reported, but with governments pinched for revenues, the alternative of motorists paying as they go may draw more favor.
Most of those surveyed agreed that the use of tolls would place the "financial burden where it belongs," and would encourage people to take public transit, the CBC said the survey of 1,500 people nationwide this month found.
