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 (from other taxes) 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.

History Many modern European roads were originally constructed as toll roads in order to bring in the costs of construction. Tolls on roads and bridges were very common in England in the 12th century and in the 15th century, schemes for improving particular roads or rivers were granted by acts of Parliament that authorised justices to levy rates for the repair of certain roads. In 1706, a new concept of road tolls was introduced in England: the turnpike trusts. The turnpike trusts were authorised to erect gates, collect tolls, appoint surveyors and collectors, demand statute labour or its monetary equivalent, mortgage the tolls, elect new trustees, and undertake work necessary for repairing the roads. By 1750, most of the main roads between London and the provincial centres and some inter-provincial routes had been turnpiked. By the mid-1830s, over 1000 turnpike trusts controlled 35,000 km of main roads and disposed about 1.5 million pounds of toll receipts each year. However, the rise of railway transport largely halted the road improving schemes of the turnpike trusts, and from the 1870s, the Parliament stopped renewing the acts and roads began to revert to local authorities; toll roads passed out of fashion until the later 19th century.Albert, William (1972): The Turnpike Road System in England 1663-1840 in: Jordi, Philipp (2008): "Institutional Aspects of Directive 2004/52/EC on the Interoperability of Electronic Road Toll Systems in the Community." Europainstitut der Universität Basel.

In the 20th century, road tolls have been introduced for financing the construction of motorway networks and specific road infrastructure such as bridges and tunnels. Italy has been the first European country to apply the use of motorway tolls on a 50 km motorway section near Milan in 1924. It was followed by Greece, which made users to pay for the network of motorways around and between its cities in 1927. Later in the 1950s and 1960s, also France, Spain and Portugal started to build motorways largely with the aid of concessions, allowing rapid development of this infrastructure without massive State debts. Since then, road tolls have been introduced in the majority of the EU Member States.Jordi, Philipp (2008): "Institutional Aspects of Directive 2004/52/EC on the Interoperability of Electronic Road Toll Systems in the Community." Europainstitut der Universität Basel.

Road tolling has been a topic on the European Community level since the 1960s, when the Council published the Council Decision No. 64/389/EEC in order to collect data to serve as a basis for the establishment of a system of charging for the use of infrastructure under the common transport policy.Frerich, Johannes and Müller, Gernot (2004): Europäische Verkehrspolitik. Von den Anfängen bis zur Osterweiterung der Europäischen Union. Band 1: Politischökonomische Rahmenbedingungen. Verkehrsinfrastrukturpolitik. München, Wien: R. Oldenburg Verlag.

However, the focus of the European Commission has rather been on lorries than on private cars, as lorries are concerned directly by the internal market. But it was only in the end of the last century, that the legal basis for road tolling was established in Directive 1999/62/EC ("Eurovignette") on European Community level. This Directive had the focus on the tolling of motorways, bridges, tunnels and mountain passes, but only for lorries over 12 tonnes maximum laden weight, and the charging was only possible for infrastructure costs. Eight years later in 2006, the Directive was amended by Directive 2006/38/EC, which has a new focus on road tolling of the trans-European road network, but leaves the EU Member States the right to apply tolls as well on roads not included in the trans-European road network. The amended Directive gives the EU Member States the possibility of varying tolls according to a number of factors such as distance travelled, place, infrastructure type and speed, vehicle characteristics, time of day and congestion level.European Commission (2003): Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 1999/62/EC on the charging of heavy goods vehicles for the use of certain infrastructures. COM(2003) 448 final in: Jordi, Philipp (2008): "Institutional Aspects of Directive 2004/52/EC on the Interoperability of Electronic Road Toll Systems in the Community." Europainstitut der Universität Basel. In addition, the EU Member States are obliged to include all vehicles over 3.5 tonnes maximum laden weight after 2012, and after 2010, the tolls must be differentiated according to the environmental performance of the vehicle.T&E European Federation For Transport And Environment (2007): A Price Worth Paying. A guide to the new EU rules for road tolls for lorries. Second edition, June 2007. Brussels. Recently, the European Commission proposed a new, second amendment to the Directive 1999/62/EC, enabling EU Member States to integrate the cost of air and noise pollution caused by traffic in tolls levied on heavy goods vehicles and allowing tolls to be calculated on the basis of the cost of congestion imposed upon other vehicles during peak periods.

Specialised system provisions

Toll stickers

Several European countries have toll road payment done in the form of toll stickers affixed to the car's front window, which are valid for a certain amount of time.

Toll collection for lorries Switzerland introduced a toll-system for HGVs over 3.5 tonnes in January 2001, and Austria introduced an electronic toll collection system for lorries over 3.5 tonnes in January 2004, based on DSRC micro wave technology. Germany followed suit with a toll system for lorries over 12 tonnes, with some delay due to organisational and technical problems on 1 January 2005. The German Toll Collect system is based on a technology using satellites; lorry operators may choose to either install on-board units for automated tracking of movements, or to book their route in advance using the internet or computerised booking terminals. The toll is valid for lorries or HGVs over 12 tonnes. On 1 October 2015, the toll will be extended to lorries over 7.5 tonnes. Hungary installed the e-toll system for lorries over 3.5 tonnes on 1 July 2013. Lithuanian highways A1-A18 have a toll system for all vans, lorries and buses. On 1 July 2014, Latvia introduced a toll system for all lorries over 3.5 tons on highways A1-A15.

Particular countries

Austria As of 2017, a twelve-month sticker for private cars and motorhomes up to 3.5t is EURO 86.40 and for motorcycles EURO 34.40. A two-month sticker for private cars and motorhomes up to 3.5t is EURO 25.90 and for motorcycles EURO 13.00. A 10-day sticker for private cars and motorhomes up to 3.5t is EURO 8.90 and for motorcycles EURO 5.10.

Belarus

Major highways in Belarus are toll roads with Open road tolling (ORT) or free-flow tolling. BelToll is an electronic toll collection system (ETC), valid from 1 July 2013 in the Republic of Belarus.

Bulgaria All vehicles using roads in Bulgaria must have a vignette sticker. It is obligatory for almost all national roads in Bulgaria, not only for highways. 2017 Price for annual sticker (valid from January 1 to January 31 next year regardless date of purchase) for vehicles under 3.5 t is 97 BGN. There's stickers for a month (30 BGN) and for a week (15 BGN).

In April 2016 Bulgaria launched a tender for implementation of an electronic toll collection system for vehicles heavier than 3.5 tonnes for all roads.

Czech Republic 2024 prices for vehicles under 3.5 tonnes:

Annual (R): CZK 2,300 Starts on the day chosen during the online purchase and expires at the end of the 365-th calendar day.

Month (M): CZK 430 Starts on the day chosen during the online purchase and expires at the end of the same day as chosen in the immediately following month.

10-day (D): CZK 270 Starts on the day chosen during the online purchase and expires at the end of the tenth calendar day.

One day (J): CZK 200 Valid for one day chosen during the online purchase.

Croatia

Croatian motorways are generally toll roads and most of these use networked closed toll collection system, meaning the driver receives a ticket upon entering the network and pays the toll upon exiting. Toll is paid in proportion to the length of the used section and according to the corresponding vehicle group. The first motorway, today's A1 section between Zagreb and Karlovac, was opened in 1972. As of 2020 there are of tolled highways in Croatia, operated by three motorway concessionaire companies, notably the state-owned Hrvatske autoceste (HAC). As a cash and credit card alternative, all highway concession companies offer paying the toll via electronic toll collection (ETC) or Smart card prepaid toll card.

Croatia also has a considerable network of other motorways, including some grade-separated expressways and major state routes, but they are by and large not tolled.

Denmark

The Great Belt Fixed Link and the Øresund Bridge are toll roads.

In the Faroe Islands, the inter-island road tunnels Vágatunnilin, Norðoyatunnilin, Eysturoyartunnilin and Sandoyartunnilin have tolls (but no physical toll booths are present and the toll must be paid at nearby petrol stations).

Finland In Finland there are no toll roads or toll bridges, which is mainly because constructing and maintaining roads is funded by Finnish taxes.

France

Germany Autobahns are totally free (Court of Justice of the European Union verdict).

Greece Greece has 2133 kilometers of motorway () toll roads: Attiki Odos Moreas Αegean Motorway Nea Odos Kentriki Odos Egnatia Odos "Charilaos Trikoupis" Rion-Antirion Bridge.

Hungary

In Hungary every motorway is a toll road, administered by the National Toll Payment Services (NÚSZ Zrt.). The roads M0 (that forms a half ring around the city of Budapest), M2 and M15 although are divided multilane roads, most sections can be used only with a sticker. A detailed map is available, showing toll roads in red and toll-exempt sections of the motorway network.