Washington State Department of Transportation is starting to realize that we cannot afford to maintain the sheer volume of roads we build. The maintenance debt that we have built up is bankrupting our governments and it’s only going to get worse year by year.
Civilization itself cannot afford to have so many car oriented roads long term.
https://www.thecentersquare.com/washington/article_e69a80be-75f1-11ef-8b50-3babe18f06e9.html
Economists love toll systems because they’re essentially a use-tax: drive more, pay more.
Unfortunately, they’re also a regressive tax. Poor people generally drive more because they can’t afford to live near their work/school/etc. So, the additional tax revenue is mostly extracted from the people who are the least capable of changing their behavior and have the least disposable income.
Toll roads always annoyed me. Here they are usually a public-private partnership. I’ve always argued that if a private company views it as profitable then a better use of money would be handle it all publicly so we can reduce the toll cost or invest the earned money into other infrastructure, instead of the pockets of wealthy people.