从芝加哥向南行驶，支付7.80美元就能通过中西部美国最长的“桥”——芝加哥天桥（Skyway），但跨越卡卢梅特河的高架段不足1英里，其余7英里只是普通高速公路。它在1950年代被法律上称为“桥”，让芝加哥市长理查德·J·戴利既能收通行费又不失去禁止对联邦资助道路收费的联邦资金。

如今收费公路正从例外走向扩张：印第安纳州在6月通过法律，授权对所有既有州际公路加收通行费，而此前没有任何州这样做。当前美国约16万英里公路中只有6,300英里需要付费；随着1956年每加仑汽油3美分（按今天约0.36美元）供养道路的模式在燃油效率上升、养护成本攀升且国会自1993年后未再上调燃油税的背景下失灵，2024财年联邦道路养护支出比税收多27亿美元，州和地方燃油税仅覆盖不到四分之一，印第安纳州自身道路养护基金也缺口20亿美元。

收费还被用来抑制拥堵：洛杉矶加州91号州道的收费“快车道”在高峰期价格更高，并可按交通状况每3分钟调整一次，类似项目正在扩张。收费通常获得两党支持，但共和党民粹化后对纽约市拥堵费和一般收费公路的反对上升，尽管佛罗里达按里程拥有最多收费公路、德州位居第二，仍出现要求回购并免费化的压力。

Driving south out of Chicago, paying $7.80 buys a crossing on the Skyway, billed as the Midwest’s longest bridge, even though the elevated span over the Calumet River is under a mile and the remaining seven miles are ordinary highway. Labeled a “bridge” in the 1950s, it enabled tolls without surrendering federal highway funding rules that barred charging drivers on federally paid roads.

Tolling is shifting from workaround to expansion: Indiana passed a law in June authorizing tolls on all existing interstates, something no state has previously attempted. Only 6,300 of roughly 160,000 U.S. highway miles are tolled today, but the gas-tax model—3 cents per gallon in 1956 (about $0.36 today)—has eroded as costs rose, fuel economy improved, and Congress last raised the tax in 1993, leaving a $27bn federal road-maintenance gap in fiscal 2024; state and local fuel taxes cover barely a quarter, and Indiana cites a $2bn shortfall.

Tolls are also pitched as congestion control: California State Route 91’s express lane can reprice as often as every three minutes, with high peak charges, and similar projects are spreading. Support is often bipartisan, yet Republican populism has fueled resistance to New York City congestion pricing and even to standard toll roads, despite Florida having the most toll-road mileage and Texas ranking second.

Source: Toll roads are spreading in America

Subtitle: The decline of petrol taxes is to blame

Dateline: 12月 18, 2025 05:44 上午 | CHICAGO