Toll road
The amount of the toll usually varies by vehicle type, weight, or number of axles, with freight trucks often charged higher rates than cars.
Some tolls are set aside to pay for future maintenance or enhancement of infrastructure, or are applied as a general fund by local governments, not being earmarked for transport facilities.
Most roads were not freely open to travel on in Europe during the Middle Ages,[3] and the toll was one of many feudal fees paid for rights of usage in everyday life.
Some major European "highways", such as the Via Regia and Via Imperii, offered protection to travelers in exchange for paying the royal toll.
In the 20th century, road tolls were introduced in Europe to finance the construction of motorway networks and specific transport infrastructure such as bridges and tunnels.
[7] Piero Puricelli, a civil engineer and entrepreneur, received the first authorization to build a public-utility fast road in 1921, and completed the construction (one lane in each direction) between 1924 and 1926.
Later in the 1950s and 1960s, France, Spain, and Portugal started to build motorways largely with the aid of concessions, allowing rapid development of this infrastructure without massive state debts.
Turnpike trusts were established in England and Wales from about 1706 in response to the need for better roads than the few and poorly-maintained tracks then available.
At their peak, in the 1830s, over 1,000 trusts[10] administered around 30,000 miles (48,000 km) of turnpike road in England and Wales, taking tolls at almost 8,000 toll-gates.
[11] The trusts were ultimately responsible for the maintenance and improvement of most of the main roads in England and Wales, which were used to distribute agricultural and industrial goods economically.
Thomas Telford's Holyhead road followed Watling Street from London but was exceptional in creating a largely new route beyond Shrewsbury, and especially beyond Llangollen.
[13] In the eastern United States of the 18th and 19th century, hundreds of private turnpikes were created to facilitate travel between towns and cities, typically outside built-up areas.
Major exceptions are the beltways around some larger cities (tangenziali) which are not part of a thoroughfare motorway, and the Autostrada A2 between Salerno and Reggio di Calabria which is operated by the government-owned ANAS.
[17] From a technical point of view, however, the mixed barrier/free-flow system is active where, at the entrance and exit from the motorways, there are lanes dedicated to the collection of a ticket (on entry) and the delivery of the ticket with simultaneous payment (on exit) and other lanes where, during transit without the need to stop, an electronic toll system[18] present in the vehicles records the data and debits the toll, generally into the bank account previously communicated by the customer, to the manager of his device.
[19] It requires the driver of the vehicle to collect a special ticket at the entrance to the motorway and pay the amount due upon exit.
If equipped with an electronic toll system the two procedures are completely automatic and the driver on the detection lanes located at the entrances and exits from the motorways subject to toll payment must only proceed at a maximum speed of 30 kilometres per hour (20 mph) without the need to stop.
Motorway barriers are arranged along the route (however not at every junction), at which the user pays a fixed sum, depending only on the class of the vehicle.
In addition, with most systems, motorists may pay tolls only with cash or change; debit and credit cards are not accepted.
[22] The first major deployment of an RFID electronic toll collection system in the United States was on the Dallas North Tollway in 1989 by Amtech (see TollTag).
The Amtech RFID technology used on the Dallas North Tollway was originally developed at Sandia Labs for use in tagging and tracking livestock.
Throughout most of the East Coast of the United States, E-ZPass (operated under the brand I-Pass in Illinois) is accepted on almost all toll roads.
Similar systems include SunPass in Florida, FasTrak in California, Good to Go in Washington state, and ExpressToll in Colorado.
A similar variation of automatic collection is the Toll Roads in Orange County, CA, US, wherein all entry or collection points are equipped with high-speed cameras which read license plates and users will have 7 calendar days to pay online using their plate number or else set up an account for automatic debits.
The first all-electronic toll road in the northeastern United States, the InterCounty Connector (Maryland Route 200) was partially opened to traffic in February 2011,[24] and the final segment was completed in November 2014.
[25] The first section of another all-electronic toll road, the Triangle Expressway, opened at the beginning of 2012 in North Carolina.
This type of arrangement is prevalent in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, South Korea, Japan, and the Philippines.
The BOT system is a fairly new concept that is becoming more popular in the United States, with California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi,[27] Texas, and Virginia already building and operating toll roads under this scheme.
The more traditional means of managing toll roads in the United States is through semi-autonomous public authorities.
Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia manage their toll roads in this manner.
In France, some toll roads are operated by private or public companies, with specific taxes collected by the state.
