Samenvatting
This paper analyzes aspects of economic efficiency in the use of roads with and without tolls. Tolls are economically optimal if they induce an efficient use of the available road capacity. The long-run goal of financing additional roads through maximal toll revenues is compared with this short-run objective. Revenue maximizing tolls are shown to be higher. An optimal allocation of traffic among parallel roads is achieved without toll by equalization of travel time if, and only if, the road capacity functions differ only by a scale factor. A toll on only one of several roads is less efficient and should be smaller than in the case where tolls are charged on many or all parallel facilities.