Private Toll Roads: Changing the Highway Paradigm

Privatization approaches hold great promise for improving the performance of the U.S. highway system. But dramatic results akin to those being achieved overseas via private toll road concessions will depend critically on supportive public policy. Other countries have adopted the private concession model as a matter of national policy, applying it not merely to a few speculative new roads but to major modernization of existing highways and expressways. To realize the potential that the private sector has to offer, we need new highway policies that would create a level financial playing field between the public and private sectors, share start-up risks and costs between the public and private sectors, and remove restrictions (such as the ban on interstate tolls). The transportation community must also educate policy makers and opinion leaders on the case for tolls as both a financing vehicle and a highway management tool.