Toll road

In vehicle transportation, a toll road is a limited access road that imposes a user fee for the right to travel on it.

Historically, roads were privately owned and maintained. Early roads were called turnpikes because as a horse and buggy approached the toll booth a wooden arm would block their way. After paying a toll, the wooden pike would be turned to allow the paying party to pass.

With the advent of the automobile, many states sought to develop and improve publicly-owned roads. The construction and maintenance of public roads were financed by imposing taxes on gasoline and other motor fuels. Immediately after World War II, a number of states sought to build high speed limited access highways as toll roads, because the states lacked the funds to build them as freeways. These toll roads were owned and operated by government agencies. When the federal government established the Interstate Highway System, the federal government used a federal gasoline tax to pay for 90% of the cost of new freeways. Most of the existing toll roads were incorporated into the system, but the federal funding stopped the spread of additional toll roads.

In the 1970s, several states adopted legislation to allow private companies to build and operate toll roads. As a further step, several governments sold their existing toll roads to private companies and used the money from the sale to meet other state needs. For example, both the Chicago Skyway and the Indiana Tollroad were sold to private investors.

Toll collection

Currently, there are three ways of collecting tolls. First, the driver pulls up to a toll booth and pays by cash or credit card. Second, the driver can mount a RFID transponder on his vehicle, which transmits his account information to antennas mounted across the road. Finally, the driver can register his license plate number with the toll road and when cameras take photos of his license plate traveling past the toll booth, the driver's account will be assess the toll.

The last two methods depend on the toll authority keeping accurate records of how many times the vehicle used the toll road and then deducting the correct tolls from the correct user's account. Many states have passed laws giving the toll road operator the right to seek high penalties for failure to pay and to use the courts to enforce payments. Some toll roads charge a higher fee for cash payments or license plate collections to encourage drivers to use an RFID transponder. Some toll road operators have made significant billing errors. For example, the private company that in 2014 took over the tunnels in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia has made many billing mistakes.