Executive Report: Toll Roads, Toll Rates, and Driver Behavior

State and federal research has examined toll roads and attempted to identify methods to make toll roads a more attractive option for drivers. Researchers examined various views of toll road transactions and concluded: (1) Truckers and trucking companies view toll roads significantly differently than the average passenger car driver. Travel time savings and avoiding congestion are generally less important than the actual cost of the tolls and their inability to pass those costs to their customers. (2) Drivers require more information on toll roads: where they are located, how/where to access them, how to pay for the toll transaction, how much time they will save by taking a toll road versus a free alternative, who operates a given toll road, etc. (3) Raising toll rates actually increases revenue while lowering toll rates increases traffic volumes at the expense of toll revenues.