Featured, Insights • June 17, 2026
How Tolling Agencies Can Lead the Next Era of Equitable Transportation Infrastructure
Across the country, traditional transportation revenue models and considerations are under pressure as fuel efficiency improves, electric vehicle adoption grows, and infrastructure costs continue to rise. Direct user fees, including tolling and road pricing, are not exempt from these patterns. Today, these fees are critical to the transportation funding conversation as they now create a defined connection between system use and system investment—highlighting user needs and which systems and tools work best to meet those needs. But that connection also raises an equity question that agencies cannot ignore: When transportation costs and systems are applied broadly, do they affect everyone in the same way?
As practitioners in transportation infrastructure, we have found that the answer is no.
“As leaders in transportation infrastructure, one of our goals is to partner with agencies to develop affordable systems that can assist people with getting over some of the barriers and hardships in life.”
– Wilbur C. Milhouse III, Chairman/CEO, Milhouse
Equity and Transportation Infrastructure
In transportation, we view infrastructure not only as the roadways we use to get around, but also the interactive, and often digital, tolling systems drivers use while navigating trips. For tolling agencies, that means overseeing and implementing strategies and systems to make these interactions happen fluidly, which has only become more complex with the introduction of greater technology and shifting user needs. Agencies now need to focus on how to fund, maintain, and modernize infrastructure while making sure the system works for the people who depend on it most. This is where equity comes in.
It’s been observed across the nation how households with lower incomes spend a larger share of their income on transportation costs than higher-income households. In 2022, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics found that U.S. households making under $25,000 spend 30 percent of their income on transportation, while high-income households were spending around 13 percent of their income. Northeastern Illinois provides another example of the greater burden placed on lower-income households. As shown by CMAP’s analysis, on average, residents with low income (below the federal poverty level) spend 16 percent of their income on transportation compared to residents with high incomes spending just 6 percent of their income on transportation. That matters because tolls, fees, fines, and fares are not experienced in isolation. They are layered on top of fuel, insurance, vehicle maintenance, parking, transit fares, and the daily reality of getting to work, school, medical appointments, and family obligations.
This highlights how equity reaches beyond traditional lenses. In tolling, equity does not stop at pricing and does not have to mean weakening the financial model that keeps roads, bridges, tunnels, and managed lanes operating. Equity can mean:
Building More Equitable Tolling Systems
User-Centered Planning
Designing policies, programs, and customer experiences around real user needs and constraints.
Data-Driven Insights
Using data to identify pain points earlier and inform better decision-making.
Inclusive Payment Options
Creating payment variety that supports users without traditional banking relationships.
Transparent Investment
Communicating where revenues go and how investments improve mobility.
This is where tolling agencies have an opportunity to lead.
Tolling agencies already manage some of the most sophisticated customer, payment, roadway, data, and operational systems in transportation. The industry has spent decades building the infrastructure required to process transactions, manage accounts, support interoperability, maintain revenue integrity, operate roadside technology, and deliver reliable travel experiences. The International Bridge, Tunnel & Turnpike Association (IBTTA)’s recent comments to USDOT make the case that tolling and road pricing belong at the center of the national transportation digital infrastructure conversation, given how deeply these systems depend on roadside technology, communications networks, customer accounts, payment platforms, data exchange, and governance.
That operational foundation gives agencies more than a way to collect revenue. It gives them a platform to design transportation systems that are easier to use, easier to understand, and more responsive to the communities they serve.
Equity of Fee Transparency
Public skepticism toward tolling often grows when people cannot see how revenues are being reinvested. Transparency can help agencies build trust by showing how toll dollars support roadway maintenance, safety, reliability, transit connections, corridor improvements, and community benefits. Recent transportation equity recommendations have pointed to public revenue tracking dashboards as one way to make revenue allocation more visible and accountable. While this offers one avenue towards the equity of fee transparency, the consideration of how to reach greater toll and roadway users is still a challenge. Dashboards offer a clear window into many of these details, however, if users are not aware of these dashboards, how to navigate to and within these dashboards, or if dissemination of information isn’t reaching them, the topic then becomes paired with the equity of information availability. Effective communication by tolling agencies remains the focus.
Equity of Payment Diversity
The payment experience is another major opportunity to achieve equity amongst users. All-electronic tolling has improved efficiency, reduced congestion at toll plazas, and created a more modern customer experience. But electronic systems can also create barriers for people who are unbanked, underbanked, or less able to access automatic payment tools. The Federal Reserve reported that 6% of adults were unbanked in 2024—an increase from 5% in 2020. Among unbanked households, cash remains a major way to pay bills.
For tolling agencies, this is a solvable design challenge. Modernization can include mobile payments and account-based systems while still preserving inclusive payment pathways. Agencies can expand retail cash reload networks, simplify account enrollment, improve multilingual customer support, reduce friction for infrequent users, and make low-balance notifications more intuitive. These operational choices can prevent a missed payment from becoming a compounding financial burden.
Equity of Payment Enforcement
The same thinking applies to fees and violations. Enforcement will always be part of revenue assurance, but fee structures can be designed to encourage payment and account resolution rather than allowing small balances to escalate into unmanageable debt. The Illinois Tollway’s reduction of missed toll fees and shift toward invoicing before violation notices was one example of how agencies can modernize enforcement while reducing financial strain on customers.
Discounts and exemptions are another method for payment enforcement, but they require careful design. CMAP’s tolling and pricing analysis notes that discounts and exemptions can affect net revenues, congestion outcomes, and administrative costs. Vehicle-based exemptions, such as those for emergency vehicles or vehicles adapted for people with disabilities, are often easier to verify. Income-based, residency-based, or occupation-based discounts may better target affordability concerns, but they require stronger administrative systems and ongoing verification.
That does not mean agencies should avoid affordability programs. It means they should design them with the same rigor they bring to traffic and revenue studies, toll system implementation, and operations planning. A targeted program with clear eligibility criteria, reliable verification, strong customer service, and regular performance monitoring can help preserve revenue while addressing real affordability challenges.
Equity of Data and Representation
A more equitable tolling infrastructure also depends on better data. Agencies already collect enormous amounts of operational information, but equity analysis often requires looking beyond aggregate traffic and revenue trends. It requires understanding travel behavior by income, geography, payment method, trip purpose, access to alternatives, and frequency of use. Research recommendations in this space increasingly call for standardized equity assessment frameworks that measure affordability, accessibility, revenue reinvestment, and changes in travel behavior over time.
For agencies, more equitable dashboards can become a practical management tool. They can help leaders understand whether policies are working as intended, whether relief programs are reaching eligible customers, whether certain corridors have limited alternatives, and whether pricing changes are creating unintended diversion or hardship. Done well, this kind of measurement strengthens decision-making and gives agencies a stronger story to tell lawmakers, customers, and communities.
Community engagement is also part of the infrastructure. Tolling decisions are highly technical, but they are also deeply personal. A driver may not care how sophisticated a pricing algorithm is if they feel they had no voice in the policy, no clear explanation of the benefits, and no realistic alternative route. Agencies can build stronger public acceptance by engaging communities early, explaining tradeoffs honestly, showing how revenues are used, and creating feedback loops after implementation.
“Sometimes, it’s not the cost itself that creates tensions between users and agencies. Often, it’s whether or not the people feel that they’ve been heard when new policies or updates are implemented. We want to encourage agencies to work with the communities and consider their feedback when developing new systems or policies to ensure they’re created with a ‘people first’ mindset.”
– Wilbur C. Milhouse III
The Future of Equity, Tolling, and Technology
The future of tolling will be shaped by technology, but technology alone will not determine whether the system is equitable. The agencies that lead will be those that:
Technology Considerations for the Future of Tolling
Purpose-Driven Technology
Connect digital infrastructure with public purpose and ease of use.
Connected Systems
Use interoperability to make travel easier across jurisdictions.
Flexible Payments
Improve convenience with mobile payments while supporting cash-preferred customers.
Responsible Data
Use data to improve operations while protecting privacy.
Balanced Pricing
Manage congestion and fund infrastructure while recognizing affordability as part of mobility.
This is an empowering moment for tolling agencies because the tools are already in motion. The industry understands complex operations. It understands revenue stewardship. It understands customer accounts, roadside systems, enforcement, interoperability, and long-term asset management. The next step is applying that same expertise to equity through design.
A more equitable tolling system will not come from a single discount, dashboard, or outreach campaign. It will come from the daily decisions that shape how customers interact with the system, how policies are evaluated, how revenues are reinvested, and how agencies communicate the value they provide.
At Milhouse, we understand that transportation infrastructure must work at both the system level and the human level. Across planning and engineering, program management, digital systems coordination, and community-centered implementation, we help agencies turn complex infrastructure goals into practical, buildable solutions.
Tolling agencies have an essential role to play in the future of transportation. With the right infrastructure, policies, and partnerships, they can help build a system that is financially sustainable, operationally reliable, and more equitable for the people and communities it serves.
Learn more about how agencies can create smarter, safer, and more equitable transportation systems on our Tolling Resources page.