When PPPs provide for tolled facilities, Arizona and North Carolina require that public agencies maintain existing non-toll routes. Arizona and North Carolina, not coincidentally, are two of the states with the least experience in developing transportation facilities using PPP projects. While keeping non-toll routes and regular lanes parallel to toll routes and lanes is often used to gain the political and public acceptance for new road pricing schemes in their early stage, there is no economic reason to require non-toll routes and lanes. None of the states with more extensive PPP experience require comparable non-toll routes; as such routes divert some traffic away from toll routes and reduce toll revenues, which discourage private investment on such facilities. These requirements also lessen the ability of public agencies to pursue projects in areas where it is infeasible to keep both toll roads and competing non-toll facilities open. Although these requirements may placate the public afraid of having no choice but to drive on tolled facilities, the fundamental concept of tolls or any road pricing is that drivers are paying for the costs that they incur to the society. To protect the public from outrageous tolls, toll caps can be introduced within a contract but not in legislation. In addition, experience has shown that even U.S. drivers will pay to use superior transportation facilities (Kalauskas, Taylor, and Iseki 2009).8
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8 For example, Orange County's SR-91 Express Lanes, San Diego's I-15 HOT Lanes, and Minnesota's I-394.