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Don't laugh, until about 3 years ago, the Garden State Parkway still relied on the honor system with regards to toll payment in cash lanes. This was long after license plate cameras were installed to catch toll runners in EZPass lanes. The instructions at the booth if you were unable to pay were to honk your horn (presumably to notify a toll attendant in a staffed lane) and to take a pre-addressed envelope that you could mail the toll in. http://tollroadsnews.com/news/...

Hell yeah! And if you want a road built

People used to do that a lot more than they do now. But large construction projects are still sometimes privately-funded. There's one going on near where I live, to replace a bridge that Government couldn't afford to build, then bought, and let fall into a state of serious disrepair, before closing last year. Jordan Bridge

or a law enforced how 'bout you pay for that yourself too.

No, enforcement of laws through the use of force is one of the powers the people ceded to government. An ordinary citizen can sue government to ensure enforcement, but can't do that himself.

Or you want a war fought

Power ceded to Congress

or a private bank bailed out...oh no wait, we have got money for that.

I didn't support that, either. And it's becoming clear that it isn't working. But the administration's view is, "if it's not working, you're not doing it hard enough."

I foresee stunning success.

I agree wholeheartedly, though I am tempted to say [citation needed] on the 50% figure.

Well, you'd be right to ask for [citation needed], per the source I finally found, it's more like 22%, only the worst toll roads bust 50%.

Still, compare it to the gasoline tax - Toll roads cost $22 per $100 collected. On average, gas taxes for the whole USA cost only $0.88 for that $100.

Some other links -
$82M revenue, $19M costs, 23%
$169.5M, $48.8M toll and administrion, 29%
Same data as in first source

With that great of a difference in efficiency, it's cheaper for me, in the long run, to accept some inequality in charges because the 'unfair' gasoline system is so much more efficient that the 'fair' toll system is more expensive.

The only other fair usage fee for road use that I can think of would be an "odometer tax": pay for your road use according to your odometer reading, just like you pay for your electricity use by your electric meter reading. But that would be much more expensive to collect, and easy for people to avoid.

It also doesn't necessarily cover the 'driving a heavy vehicle' or 'driving like an ass' tax gasoline taxes tend to impose - both tending to increase road maintenance costs.

If, however, plug-in hybrids ever become a significant fraction of the cars on the road, then there will have to be a "gasoline tax" equivalent on electricity!

I said elsewhere that I see a good chance that electric vehicles will end up being pretty much restricted to urban usage - at that point you treat the roads like schools, parks, etc... Basically, fund them through real estate taxes - In general property owners are responsible to pay for the general maintenance on the roads fronting their property and an appropriate percentage of the feeders. Basically, the city gets an appropriate amount of fuel taxes for the estimated driving via taxed fuel in the city; it's up to them to make up the difference as they see fit. This will likely end up being a substantial subsidy of electric(or plug-ins that the owner manages to keep mostly electric) vehicles; but I can live with that - powered by whatever non-polluting systems that come up, they're very clean. Air quality is a substantial concern in cities, and IC Engines still produce localized pollution even if they're running ethanol/biodiesel/whatever. If that's excessive, then you back it up with an odo tax.

I did read an interesting article the other day about an economist proposing we solve our traffic congestion and road funding problems by implementing a dynamic tolls system on all the major highways. A busy road would have a higher toll than a less crowded road, encouraging people to take the cheaper route, and at the same time, providing funds for the highway system.

That's done in California right now, as it is elsewhere. We have dynamic pricing where I live in Minneapolis/St Paul.

Falcon

They have been doing this in Toronto with 407ETR for a long long time. Wonder why it just started in US?

It's not just starting in the US. Part of San Diego's I 15 has been a toll road for more than 10 years and the toll is set in realtime. The more traffic the higher the toll.

Falcon

"Look to Singapore for prior art. An article at http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/2239 suggests that *many* places have done this. I'm sure that IBM has added some "non-obvious" twist to an obvious idea."

God I hope it's the Spanish Inquisition. Nothing obvious about that!

Look to Singapore for prior art. An article at http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/2239 suggests that *many* places have done this. I'm sure that IBM has added some "non-obvious" twist to an obvious idea.