Video: Why U.S. Road Tolling Is So Complicated

A from explores the com­plex road tolling in the U.S. and explains why, despite a 2012 fed­er­al law that requires inter­op­er­abil­i­ty between toll sys­tems, we still use dozens of dif­fer­ent transpon­ders across the coun­try.

With 130 sys­tems in 34 states, the U.S. toll road sys­tem is a pop­u­lar way for states to sup­ple­ment road rev­enue. First insti­tut­ed in the mid 1800s, toll roads fell out of favor in the mid-20th cen­tu­ry after Con­gress passed a tax. Lat­er, as fuel-effi­cient led to less rev­enue from gas tax­es, states once again began toll roads to increase road main­te­nance fund­ing.

Because the 2012 law does­n’t impose any penal­ties for not achiev­ing inter­op­er­abil­i­ty, states have worked to cre­ate region­al pass­es that cov­er, in some cas­es, dozens of states, but the U.S. has yet to achieve inter­op­er­abil­i­ty.

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