Re:Toll roads are spreading in America
by Waterluvian on Monday December 29, 2025 @05:07AM
(#46419096)
Once paid off do the toll roads in Norway become non-toll?
That’s the only idea that makes sense to me.
Re:Toll roads are spreading in America
by magicalhippo on Monday December 29, 2025 @08:24AM
(#46420466)
That's the general idea, and typically followed. I've experienced several transitioning to non-toll.
The ones in the cities have a tendency to stay though, as they find new infrastructure projects to finance.
An issue is that it's set up as a regular loan, which the collected toll repays. So over the lifetime of the loan, often more than half is interest. Add administration costs and in some cases the actual money spent on the road is a small fraction of the total toll paid.
That said, in principle I think it's fair to have some use-based pricing. Same goes for public transportation. Studies have shown it's not ideal to have free public transportation, but rather a low fare.