Toll roads in Europe

By the mid-1830s, over 1000 turnpike trusts controlled 35,000 km of main roads and disposed about 1.5 million pounds of toll receipts each year.

Later in the 1950s and 1960s, also France, Spain and Portugal started to build motorways largely with the aid of concessions, allowing rapid development of this infrastructure without massive State debts.

64/389/EEC in order to collect data to serve as a basis for the establishment of a system of charging for the use of infrastructure under the common transport policy.

But it was only in the end of the last century, that the legal basis for road tolling was established in Directive 1999/62/EC ("Eurovignette") on European Community level.

This Directive had the focus on the tolling of motorways, bridges, tunnels and mountain passes, but only for lorries over 12 tonnes maximum laden weight, and the charging was only possible for infrastructure costs.

The amended Directive gives the EU Member States the possibility of varying tolls according to a number of factors such as distance travelled, place, infrastructure type and speed, vehicle characteristics, time of day and congestion level.

the European Commission proposed a new, second amendment to the Directive 1999/62/EC, enabling EU Member States to integrate the cost of air and noise pollution caused by traffic in tolls levied on heavy goods vehicles and allowing tolls to be calculated on the basis of the cost of congestion imposed upon other vehicles during peak periods.

In April 2016 Bulgaria launched a tender for implementation of an electronic toll collection system for vehicles heavier than 3.5 tonnes for all roads.

As of 2020 there are 1,306.5 km (811.8 mi) of tolled highways in Croatia, operated by three motorway concessionaire companies, notably the state-owned Hrvatske autoceste (HAC).

[8] Croatia also has a considerable network of other motorways, including some grade-separated expressways and major state routes, but they are by and large not tolled.

A detailed map is available,[11] showing toll roads in red and toll-exempt sections of the motorway network.

Since the beginning of 2008, the purchase of a motorway sticker is handled electronically (known as an "e-sticker" or e-matrica),[12] thus cannot be put physically on the windshield anymore, it is only registered in a computer system with its validity period.

[14] 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[15] 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.

[16] 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.

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.

Highways in North Macedonia which have been upgraded to avtopat standard are toll roads and they use a ticket system.

In difference to the project in Singapore, the tolls in Norway are by law not meant as a means for regulating traffic but rather only as one for generating income to be invested in infrastructure.

Toll roads around major cities are permanent, financing to a large extent non-road related infrastructure, like subsidizing subways or bike paths.

Some motorways operate a cash-free Via Verde system (Portuguese for Green Way) which is an electronic tag that is fitted to vehicles and automatically debits an associated bank-account with the cost of the journey made.

Well-known roads are the A1, which goes from Lisbon to Porto and the A2, from Almada to the Algarve, or the A6, from the A2 at Marateca to the Spanish border, close to Badajoz.

Also, since the payment starts only after the road is finished, construction delays are usually shorter than those of regular state-owned dual carriage-ways.

Only an annual sticker is available, which currently costs CHF 40, (around 34 Euros as of 20.11.2017) and allows for unlimited travel on the motorway network of the country during the calendar year.

This fee replaces the flat-rate heavy vehicle charge that had been levied since 1985 and is based on a law approved by a clear majority of the electorate in September 1998.

The HVF must be paid on all Swiss and foreign vehicles (i.e. those registered outside Switzerland) used for freight transport whose total maximum permitted weight exceeds 3.5 tonnes.

The amount charged is based on the mileage covered, the total maximum permitted weight and the emission rating (Euro class) of the vehicle in question.

Swiss transport companies regularly declare the mileage covered by their vehicles to the Directorate General of Customs.

The system for levying HVF is implemented by the customs administration in conjunction with cantonal highways offices, transport companies and authorised assembly points.

The annual cost of operation, maintenance and additional staff constitutes around 7–8% of the total, which is relatively low in comparison with other electronic toll systems.

[21][22] The OGS (Turkish: Otomatik Geçiş Sistemi; English: Automatic passage system), and later HGS (Turkish: Hızlı Geçiş Sistemi; English: Fast passage system) (the former of which was retired in 2021)[23][24] method uses a RFID chip stuck to the windshield of the vehicle.

[25] Bypassing the toll system results with a fine to the registered postal home address of the vehicle.