I would like to hear the other half of the story on bus priority lanes. How many minutes does bus priority lanes add to the thousands of people whose commute is longer because they are restricted to two lanes of cars, whereas before they had the advantage of travelling in three lanes, albeit mixed in with buses?
The majority of commuters travelling in private vehicles are taking longer and are spending more money on fuel. To add insult to injury, they are paying a BC Transit Motor Fuel Tax of 5.5 cents per litre to help subsidize those who are getting special treatment on the buses. In total private motor car commuters are paying 27.78 cents per litre provincial tax, including the carbon tax, plus paying the federal government tax on gasoline of $0.10 a litre, plus five per cent GST which is applied to the total cost of the fuel, which means it is a tax on tax.
That does not seem to be fair and equitable to me.
Patrick Hunt
Victoria
