[Jonty30]

I’m against toll roads in principle. Roads should be paid out of the common tax base.

[Alberta's Child]

I work in transportation infrastructure professionally and I think you have it backwards. I’m not a fan of toll roads but I do recognize that they are the closest thing we have to a “user pays” type of system where the costs of building and maintaining a road are allocated efficiently to the users.

The problem with a “common tax base” arrangement is that a highway system inevitably takes on all the worst characteristics of an all-you-can-eat buffet. The quality of the food is poor and the customers consume too much of it because the pricing structure and system of paying for the meal gives every incentive to the customers to eat as much as they can.