Green Gregor to balance budget with bike tolls?

Vancouver city hall’s latest bid to balance the budget is a plan to toll cyclists on downtown bike lanes.

A document obtained by QMI shows that sensors were embedded in the pavement along Dunsmuir and Hornby streets and the Burrard Bridge. A sole-source contract was awarded to Cubic Technologies, the San Diego company behind
TransLink’s 2013 Compass card and fare gates, to sell the mandatory transponders to cyclists.

Cyclists will be required to pay $5 to affix the transponder to their bikes. They will be charged 25 cents per city block and be billed monthly by Verrus, which also handles mobile phone parking meter payments for the city.

A press conference is planned for noon April 1.