A city government is considering a proposal to charge a toll on private vehicles entering its downtown core during peak weekday hours, with the collected revenue earmarked for improving public bus and rail service. Proponents argue that a peak-hour toll would reduce the number of cars on downtown streets during the most congested times, that faster-moving traffic would let buses keep to their schedules more reliably, and that the toll revenue would fund enough new public transit service to give affected drivers a viable alternative.

Based on a six-month pilot in which the toll was charged only on one major downtown avenue, the city's transportation department has concluded that expanding the toll to the entire downtown core would reduce peak-hour congestion and improve bus reliability citywide, without significantly harming downtown businesses that depend on customers arriving by car.