page_title: Toll road
section_title: How toll roads work
hierarchical_section_title: Toll road / How toll roads work
caption_attribution_description: English: Toll booths in the United Kingdom
context_page_description: A toll road is a road for which vehicles must pay a fee to use, called a "toll". Toll roads are there in part to control the number of people using it. They may be built to allow some users to travel faster and avoid traffic congestion, speeding up traffic. In the past, tolls were collected to give income to governments or landowners. Today, tolls can be considered a form of tax which pays for the cost of road construction and maintenance that are not charged on those who do not use that road.
context_section_description: There are many types of toll roads. Tolls might be charged to use a bridge, tunnel, or highway. On some roads, the amount of money you pay depends on how far along the road you go, and/or whether you are driving a car, motorcycle, bus, or truck. On other roads, you pay the same amount no matter how far you go or what you drive.
  There are also many ways tolls can be collected. In the first toll roads, you had to stop at a booth along the road and pay the toll to a person, called a "collector". Depending on the road, you might have to do so when you get on, when you get off, or both. Because many vehicles may be waiting to pay the toll, the area around "toll plazas", which are a bunch of booths blocking the whole road, can be crowded. Recently, there are roads that have "electronic toll collection", which makes use of computer chips and RFID technology to identify drivers and charge their tolls on their bank accounts.
  Tolls might be collected by vehicles traveling on one or more lanes of a road which is otherwise free to use. These lanes are often called "high occupancy toll lanes" because in most cases, vehicles with more than one person do not have to pay to use the lane. These lanes are there to encourage carpooling. If there are fewer cars on the road, more people can get to where they want to go without getting stuck in traffic.
  All roads have to be paid for somehow, and so are never truly "free". Normally, road construction costs are paid for by the taxes on gasoline, diesel, or other  fuel. Users of toll roads still pay these taxes and the tolls for using this particular road or lane.
caption: A toll collection area in the United Kingdom
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