Across the United States and around the world, targeted tolls and pricing are a proven technique for charging users who travel on selected roads or within a regional transportation network. Advances in technology are encouraging adoption of more sophisticated tolling and pricing practices. In the United States, targeted tolls are mostly used to pay for construction, maintenance, operation, and improvement of individual facilities and sometimes to manage congestion. Facilities that are subject to targeted tolling and pricing are access-controlled, and prices to use them are usually fixed. Examples of targeted tolling and pricing include charging to use selected highways, tunnels, or bridges; pricing access to designated congestion-free lanes; and charging to enter cordoned areas prone to heavy congestion.
Targeted tolling and pricing approaches refer to direct user fee mechanisms that are administered at the local, regional, or state levels and that focus on pricing access to and/or distance traveled on individual facilities or regional networks. Specific targeted approaches include tolling applications (such as a tolled bridge or highway), high occupancy toll (HOT)/ managed lanes, and cordon pricing. Targeted tolling and pricing rates can be fixed as a set rate for facility access or for specific distances, or they can be variable, with dynamic rates that can change based on considerations such as type of vehicle or time of day/level of congestion (typically referred to as congestion pricing).
Targeted tolling and pricing are not feasible strategies for revenue generation at the federal level because they focus on specific roads or networks of facilities in defined geographic areas. They are nonetheless important tools that some states, localities, and regions use to generate funding for surface transportation investment. In addition, the systems and architecture that would be required to implement comprehensive pricing (see next section) at the federal level could be leveraged to facilitate broader use of targeted tolling and pricing—particularly congestion pricing—at the state and local levels. Targeted tolling and pricing options are evaluated in this report to highlight the circumstances in which these strategies may be useful and to set the context for recommending how the federal program could facilitate the further use of these strategies.
Tolling applications vary with respect to the approaches used to set toll rates and the nature of the tolled facility or network. Traditionally, tolled facilities have fallen into one of two categories:
• Turnpikes—A single road, typically a limited access highway, where every vehicle is charged for use. Many states have turnpikes as part of their state highway system, which in turn may be part of the Interstate system1
• Toll bridges and other links—Tolled individual facilities such as bridges, tunnels, or connector roads Turnpikes and bridges/tunnels/links have been critically important components of the highway network in the states where they have been used. These facilities have generally used fixed charges intended to raise revenues and, in most cases, provide significant funding to support debt service, pay for maintenance, operations, and improvements specific to the tolled facility, and fund other transportation investments.
High occupancy toll lanes or managed lanes are relatively new types of tolled facilities implemented recently in a few urban regions in the nation. These facilities use the right of way of existing highways (either existing high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes or new additional lanes) and are dedicated for use by carpoolers, public transit vehicles, and other users who are willing to pay a fee. The fee generally varies by time of day or level of congestion and facilitates better utilization of capacity while ensuring that traffic flow is adequately maintained.
Cordon pricing, also known as area or zone pricing, involves charging for access to a specific area by collecting tolls when vehicles enter it or by charging for a pass to drive in the cordoned area. In the few cases where it has been successfully implemented, cordon pricing generally has reduced the number of vehicles that enter an area. The approach also has its limitations; once a vehicle has paid for and entered a "zone," there are typically no restrictions or additional costs associated with how much or at what time an individual drives there. The application of cordon pricing can vary, with charges applied either only to visitors or to everyone operating a vehicle in a designated zone, including residents.