A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road for which a fee is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented to help recoup the costs of road construction and maintenance.
Electronic toll collection (ETC) is a wireless system to automatically collect the usage fee or toll charged to vehicles using toll roads, HOV lanes, toll bridges, and toll tunnels. It is a faster alternative which is replacing toll booths, where vehicles must stop and the driver manually pays the toll with cash or a card. In most systems, vehicles using the system are equipped with an automated radio transponder device. When the vehicle passes a roadside toll reader device, a radio signal from the reader triggers the transponder, which transmits back an identifying number which registers the vehicle's use of the road, and an electronic payment system charges the user the toll.
E-ZPass is an electronic toll collection system used on toll roads, toll bridges, and toll tunnels in the Eastern United States, Midwestern United States, and Southern United States. The E-ZPass Interagency Group (IAG) consists of member agencies in several states, which use the same technology and allow travelers to use the same transponder on toll roads throughout the network.
FasTrak is the electronic toll collection (ETC) system used in the state of California in the United States. The system is used statewide on all of the toll roads, toll bridges, and high-occupancy toll lanes along the California Freeway and Expressway System.
Touch 'n Go is a contactless smart card system used for electronic payments in Malaysia. The system was introduced in 1997 and is widely used for toll payments on highways, public transportation, parking, and other services. The card is equipped with a radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip that allows users to make payments by simply tapping the card on a reader device. Touch 'n Go cards can be reloaded with funds either online or at designated reload kiosks. The system has become a popular and convenient way for Malaysians to make cashless transactions.
I-Pass is the electronic toll collection system utilized by the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (ISTHA) on its toll highways that launched on November 18, 1993, with the opening of Interstate 355. It uses the same transponder as the E-ZPass system used in the Northeastern US, the Chicago Skyway, and the Indiana Toll Road, along with the Indiana State Road 912 Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal bridge.
Autopass is an electronic toll collection system used in Norway. It allows collecting road tolls automatically from cars. It uses electronic radio transmitters and receivers operating at 5.8 GHz (MD5885) originally supplied by the Norwegian companies Q-Free and Fenrits. Since 2013 Kapsch and Norbit supplied the transponders. In 2016 the Norwegian Public Roads Administration revealed that they had chosen Norbit and Q-Free as suppliers of Autopass-transponders the next four years.
Open road tolling (ORT), also called all-electronic tolling, cashless tolling, or free-flow tolling, is the collection of tolls on toll roads without the use of toll booths. An electronic toll collection system is usually used instead. The major advantage to ORT is that users are able to drive through the toll plaza at highway speeds without having to slow down to pay the toll. In some installations, ORT may also reduce congestion at the plazas by allowing more vehicles per hour/per lane.
A toll road is a road over which users may travel over on payment of a toll, or fee. Tolls are a form of use tax that pays for the cost of road construction and maintenance, without raising taxes on non-users. Investor's bonds necessary for the construction of the roads are issued and sold with the expectation that the bonds will be paid back with user tolls. The toll roads may be run by government agencies that have bond issuing authority and/or private companies that sell bonds or have other sources of finance. Toll roads are usually a government guaranteed road monopoly that guarantees limited or no competing roads will be built by government agencies for the duration of the bonds. Private toll roads built with money raised from private investors in expectation of making money from the tolls probably dominated early toll roads. Government sponsored toll roads often guarantee a minimum payment to the bond holders if traffic volume and toll collections are less than predicted. If the toll authority is a private company there is often a maximum amount of fees that they may extract from users. Toll road operators are typically responsible for maintaining the roads. After the bonds are paid off the road typically reverts to the government agency that authorized the road and owns the land it was built on. Like most government taxes it is not unusual for tolls to continue to be charged after the bonds have been paid off.
Video tolling is a form of electronic toll collection that uses video or still images of a vehicle's license plate to identify a vehicle liable to pay a road toll. The system dispenses with collection of road tolls using road-side cash or payment card methods, and may be used in conjunction with "all electronic" open road tolling, to permit drivers without an RFID device to use the toll road.
e-TAG is a free-flow tolling electronic toll collection system used on all tollways throughout Australia. It was originally developed by Transurban for use on their CityLink tollway in the late 1990s, with the system since adopted by all toll roads, bridges and tunnels in Australia. The technology had different names depending on the issuer, such as Breeze, Linkt, and E-toll. However, these are all interchangeable across Australia and no surcharges apply for use on other operators' toll roads.
Fjellinjen AS is a toll company owned by the City of Oslo (60%) and Viken County Municipality (40%). It is responsible for the collection from the toll ring around Oslo, with a total of nineteen toll plazas. All toll roads in Norway have a toll road operator responsible for the financing of the road project. The right to demand payment of toll charges is granted when a toll charge agreement is entered into with the Norwegian Public Roads Administration.
Ferde AS is a Norwegian toll company owned by Agder, Rogaland and Vestland counties. The company was created on 5 October 2016 is headquartered in Bergen. The company was called Sørvest Bomvegselskap AS until 1 January 2018. All toll roads in Norway have a toll road operator responsible for the financing of the road project. The right to demand payment of toll charges is granted when a toll charge agreement is entered into with the Norwegian Public Roads Administration.
EasyGo is a joint venture between Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Austria, that enables use of a single electronic toll tag on toll roads, ferries and bridges in all the member countries. The purpose of EasyGo is to enable the use of one OBE for payment when driving through any toll facility one might encounter on the way through Northern Europe and Austria.
Road tolling to finance bridges, tunnels and roads has a long history in Norway. The cities Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim introduced toll rings between 1986 and 1991 as a means to discourage urban traffic and to finance infrastructure projects around those cities. Today toll rings circumscribe Oslo, Kristiansand, Stavanger, Haugesund, Bergen, Askøy, Bodø, Harstad, Grenland, Førde and Trondheim. Besides toll rings, road tolls are installed to finance certain road projects, and often also on the existing road to discourage people from using it. Some tolls use congestion pricing and/or environmentally differentiated toll rates.
Vegfinans AS is a Norwegian toll company owned by the counties Akershus, Buskerud, Innlandet, Telemark, Vestfold and Østfold. The company was created on 14 February 2001 and is headquartered in Drammen. All toll roads in Norway have a toll road operator responsible for the financing of the road project. The right to demand payment of toll charges is granted when a toll charge agreement is entered into with the Norwegian Public Roads Administration.
Vegamot AS is a Norwegian toll company owned by Trøndelag and Møre og Romsdal counties. The company was created in 1983 and is headquartered in Trondheim. All toll roads in Norway have a toll road operator responsible for the financing of the road project. The right to demand payment of toll charges is granted when a toll charge agreement is entered into with the Norwegian Public Roads Administration.
Bompengeselskap Nord AS is a Norwegian toll company owned by Nordland, Troms and Finnmark counties. The company was created 17 August 2016 and is headquartered in Narvik. All toll roads in Norway have a toll road operator responsible for the financing of the road project. The right to demand payment of toll charges is granted when a toll charge agreement is entered into with the Norwegian Public Roads Administration.
A toll is a fee charged for the use of a road or waterway.
