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"Even if you never drive on the toll roads, you benefit from them. Every car or truck they carry is one less car or truck you have to contend with on the alternate free routes."

One other thing - back when I lived in California in the 80s, they did a survey at a freeway on-ramp. The question that they asked was to the effect: "Do you support the proposed subway for Los Angeles, and why". The prevalent answer was "yes, because it will get people off the road". Of course it wouldn't get the respondents off of the road, as their driving outweighed the extra time and inconvenience of taking the train, but it would clear the freeways of those others.

Of course it did not and the project is a giant white elephant. Something like 90% of the few people who do ride the train do so only because their roughly parallel bus lines were eliminated due to the availability of the trains.

I see the same thing with grossly overpriced toll roads. Charge me about 5 cents per mile, as in Florida, the Northeast, or Midwest, I would at least consider the option. Start pushing 20 cents per mile, then I'll only use it in real emergencies, or if I'm somehow forced to use it. I think that one can argue, in the end, that with the toll road option being available, any thought to upgrading freeways is out the window (even if there is no non-compete clause), and the toll road becomes more of a way to lock up huge amounts of land and prevent it from development.