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A toll road (also tollway, turnpike, toll highway, or express toll route) is a privately or publicly built road for which a driver pays a toll (a fee) for use. Structures for which tolls are charged include toll bridges and toll tunnels. Non-toll roads are financed using other sources of revenue, most typically fuel tax or general tax funds. The building or facility in which a toll is collected may be called a toll booth, toll house, toll plaza, toll station, toll bar or toll gate. This building is usually found near exits, at the beginning or end of bridges, and when you enter a tolled highway.
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The history of tolls stretches back to Greek mythology where Charon the ferryman charged a toll to carry the dead across the rivers Acheron and Styx to Hades. If the soul paid a toll, Charon ferried it across the river. If not, it wandered between death and life for eternity.
Tolls have been placed on roads at various times in history, often to generate funds for repayment of toll revenue bonds used to finance constructions and/or operation.
Toll roads are at least 2700 years old, as tolls had to be paid by travellers using the Susa–Babylon highway under the regime of Ashurbanipal, who reigned in the seventh century BC.[1] Aristotle and Pliny refer to tolls in Arabia and other parts of Asia. In India, before the 4th century BC, the Arthasastra notes the use of tolls. Germanic tribes charged tolls to travellers across mountain passes. Tolls were used in the Holy Roman Empire in the 14th century and 15th century.
A 14th century example (though not for a road) is Castle Loevestein in the Netherlands, which was built at a strategic point where 2 rivers meet, and charged tolls on boats sailing along the river.
Many modern European roads were originally constructed as toll roads in order to recoup the costs of construction. In 14th century England, some of the most heavily used roads were repaired with money raised from tolls by pavage grants. Turnpike trusts were established in England from 1706 onwards, and were ultimately responsible for the maintenance and improvement of most main roads in England and Wales, until they were gradually abolished from the 1870s. Most trusts improved existing roads, but some new ones, usually only short stretches of road, were also built. Thomas Telford's Holyhead road (now the A5 road) is exceptional as a particularly long new road, built in the early 19th century with many toll booths along its length. See also Toll roads in the United Kingdom.
Some cities in Canada had toll roads in the 19th Century. Roads radiating from Toronto required users to pay at toll gates along the street (Yonge Street, Bloor Street, Davenport Road, Kingston Road)[2] and disappeared after 1895.[3]
19th century plank roads were usually operated as toll roads. One of the first U.S. motor roads, the Long Island Motor Parkway (which opened on October 10, 1908) was built by William Kissam Vanderbilt II, the great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt. The road was closed in 1938 when it was taken over by the state of New York in lieu of back taxes.[4][5]
In the 20th century, road tolls have been introduced in Europe for financing the construction of motorway networks and specific road infrastructure such as bridges and tunnels. Italy has been the first European country to apply the use of motorway tolls on a 50 km motorway section near Milan in 1924. It was followed by Greece, which made users to pay for the network of motorways around and between its cities in 1927. 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. Since then, road tolls have been introduced in the majority of the EU Member States.[6]
Road tolls were levied traditionally for a specific access (e.g. city) or for a specific infrastructure (e.g. roads, bridges). These concepts were widely used until the last century. However, the evolution in technology made it possible to implement road tolling policies based on different concepts. The different charging concepts are designed to suit different requirements regarding purpose of the charge, charging policy, the network to the charge, tariff class differentiation etc.:[7]
Time Based Charges and Access Fees: In a time-based charging regime, a road user has to pay for a given period of time in which he may use the associated infrastructure. For the practically identical access fees, the user pays for the access to a restricted zone for a period or several days.
Motorway and other Infrastructure Tolling: The term tolling is used for charging a well-defined special and comparatively costly infrastructure, like a bridge, a tunnel, a mountain pass, a motorway concession or the whole motorway network of a country. Classically a toll is due when a vehicle passes a tolling station, be it a manual barrier-controlled toll plaza or a free-flow multi-lane station.
Distance or Area Charging: In a distance or area charging system concept, vehicles are charged per total distance driven in a defined area.
Some toll roads charge a toll in only one direction, such as where the M4 in Great Britain crosses the River Severn on either of the two Severn Bridges. On these bridges, it is free to travel from Wales into England, but a toll must be paid in the reverse direction. Crossings between Pennsylvania and New Jersey operated by Delaware River Port Authority, and crossings between New Jersey and New York operated by Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, use this method (in coordination with the E-ZPass electronic transponder system) given the distance between the bridges along the river, area commuter traffic, and similar tolls on each bridge. This is practical where the detour to avoid the toll is large or the toll differences are small.
Toll payments may be made in cash, by credit card, by pre-paid card, or by an electronic toll collection system. In some European countries, payment is made using stickers which are affixed to the windscreen. Some toll booths are automated. Tolls may vary according to the distance traveled, the building and maintenance costs of the motorway, and the type of vehicle.
Three systems of toll roads exist: open (with mainline barrier toll plazas); closed (with entry/exit tolls) and open road (no toll booths, only electronic toll collection gantries at entrances and exits, or at strategic locations on the mainline of the road). Modern toll roads often use a combination of the three, with various entry and exit tolls supplemented by occasional mainline tolls: for example the Massachusetts Turnpike or "MassPike," the Pennsylvania Turnpike and the New York State Thruway implement both systems in different sections.
On an open toll system, all vehicles stop at various locations along the highway to pay a toll. While this may save money from the lack of need to construct toll booths at every exit, it can cause traffic congestion while traffic queues at the mainline toll plazas (toll barriers). It is also possible for motorists to enter an 'open toll road' after one toll barrier and exit before the next one, thus travelling on the toll road toll-free. Most open toll roads have ramp tolls or partial access junctions to prevent this practice, known as "shunpiking".
With a closed system, vehicles collect a ticket when entering the highway. In some cases, the ticket displays the toll to be paid on exit. Upon exit, the driver must pay the amount listed for the given exit. Should the ticket be lost, a driver must typically pay the maximum amount possible for travel on that highway. Short toll roads with no intermediate entries or exits may have only one toll plaza at one end, with motorists traveling in either direction paying a flat fee either when they enter or when they exit the toll road. In a variant of the closed toll system, mainline barriers are present at the two endpoints of the toll road, and each interchange has a ramp toll that is paid upon exit or entry. In this case, a motorist pays a flat fee at the ramp toll and another flat fee at the end of the toll road; no ticket is necessary. In addition, with most systems, motorists may only pay tolls with cash and/or change; debit and credit cards are not accepted. However, some toll roads may have travel plazas with ATMs so motorists can stop and withdraw cash for the tolls.
The toll is calculated by the distance travelled on the toll road. In the United States, for instance, the Kansas Turnpike, Ohio Turnpike, Indiana Toll Road, Pennsylvania Turnpike, New Jersey Turnpike, and portions of the Massachusetts Turnpike, New York Thruway, and Florida's Turnpike currently implement closed systems.
In an open road system no cash collection takes place, tolls are usually collected with the use of a transponder mounted on the windshield of each vehicle, which is linked to a customer account which is debited for each use of the toll road. On some roads, such as Highway 407 near Toronto, Ontario, automobiles and light trucks without transponders are permitted to use the road (though trucks with a gross vehicle weight over 5,000 kilograms must have a transponder)[8] - a bill for the toll due is then sent to the registered owner of the vehicle by mail; by contrast, the Fort Bend Westpark Tollway near Houston, Texas, requires all vehicles to be equipped with a transponder.[9]
Toll roads are found in many countries. The way they are funded and operated may differ from country to country. Some of these toll roads are privately owned and operated. Others are owned by the government. Some of the government-owned toll roads are privately operated.
Some toll roads are managed under such systems as the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) system. Private companies build the roads and are given a limited franchise. Ownership is transferred to the government when the franchise expires. Throughout the world, this type of arrangement is prevalent in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, South Korea, Japan and the Philippines. The (BOT) system is a fairly new concept that is gaining ground in the United States, with Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi,[10] Texas, and Virginia already building and operating toll roads under this scheme. Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Tennessee are also considering the BOT methodology for future highway projects.
The more traditional means of managing toll roads in the United States is through semi-autonomous public authorities. New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Kansas, Oklahoma, and West Virginia manage their toll roads in this manner. While most of the toll roads in California, Delaware, Florida, Texas, and Virginia are operating under the BOT arrangement, a few of the older toll roads in these states are still operated by public authorities.
In France, all toll roads are operated by private companies, and the government takes a part of their profit.
Toll roads have been criticized as being inefficient in various ways:[11]
An adaptation of military "identification friend or foe" or RFID technology, called electronic toll collection, is lessening the delay incurred in toll collection. The electronic system determines whether a passing car is enrolled in the program, alerts enforcers if it is not. The accounts of registered cars are debited automatically without stopping or even opening a window. Currently, DSRC is used as a wireless protocol. Other systems are based on GPRS/GSM and GPS technology. Such a system (for trucks only) in Germany launched successfully in January 2005 and by the end of its first year of operation will have charged tolls for around 22 billion driven kilometres. One of the advantages of GPS-based systems is their ability to adapt easily and quickly to changes in charge parameters (road classes, vehicle types, emission levels, time slots, etc.). Another advantage is the systems' ability to support other value-added services on the same technology platform. These services might include fleet and vehicle engine management systems, emergency response services, pay-as-you-drive insurance services and navigation capabilities.
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. In the same year, the Telepass active transponder RFID system was introduced across Italy.
Highway 407 in the province of Ontario, Canada has no toll booths, and instead reads a transponder mounted on the windshields of each vehicle using the road (the rear license plates of vehicles lacking a transponder are photographed when they enter and exit the highway). This made the highway the first all-automated highway in the world. A bill is mailed monthly for usage of the 407. Lower charges are levied on frequent 407 users who carry electronic transponders in their vehicles. The approach has not been without controversy: In 2003 the 407 ETR settled[12] a class action with a refund to users. The same method is used on Highway 6 in Israel and the reversible lanes of the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway in Hillsborough County, Florida (in the latter case, the system reads SunPass transponders).
Throughout most of the East Coast of the United States, E-ZPass (operated under the brands I-Pass in Illinois, i-Zoom in Indiana, and Fast Lane in Massachusetts) is accepted on almost all toll roads. Similar systems include SunPass in Florida, FasTrak in California, and ExpressToll in Colorado. The systems use a small radio transponder mounted in or on a customer's vehicle to deduct toll fares from a pre-paid account as the vehicle passes through the toll barrier. This reduces manpower at toll booths and increases traffic flow and fuel efficiency by reducing the need for complete stops to pay tolls at these locations.
By designing a tollgate specifically for electronic collection, it is possible to carry out open-road tolling, where the customer does not need to slow at all when passing through the tollgate. The U.S. state of Texas is testing a system on a stretch of Texas 121 that has no toll booths. Drivers without a TollTag have their license plate photographed automatically and the registered owner will receive a monthly bill, at a higher rate than those vehicles with TollTags.[13]
Another feature of many electronic toll collection systems is interagency interoperability, where the same transponder is accepted at many toll agencies. For instance, the E-ZPass tag is accepted at most toll facilities in the Eastern United States, from Virginia to Maine, west to the Peace Bridge spanning the Niagara River, and in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The TxTAG system allows interoperability throughout the state of Texas, but is not compatible with systems used outside of Texas.
Electronic toll collection systems also have drawbacks. A computer glitch can result in delays several miles long. Some U.S. state turnpike commissions have debated implementing E-ZPass but have found that such a system would be ineffective because most of the people who use the turnpike are not commuters, are from states that have no ETS on turnpikes, or are from states that don't have a turnpike at all. The toll plazas of some turnpikes are antiquated because they were originally built for traffic that stops to pay the toll or get a ticket.
The technology does have its limits. For instance, the Highway 407 automatic number plate recognition technology has a reputation for the occasional misread plate, leading to bills being sent to motorists in remote parts of Ontario who have never been near the tollway. The Ontario government responded to complaints by hiring an ombudsman to address 407 toll complaints.[14]
The first all-electric toll road in the eastern United States, the InterCounty Connector (Maryland Route 200) was partially opened to traffic in February 2011.[15] Another all-electronic toll road, the Triangle Parkway, will open at the end of 2011 in North Carolina.[16]
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