ABSTRACT
The experience of the United States provides an informative reference point against which to judge road investment decisions in Europe. In Western Europe as a whole, there are some 40,000 km of motorways, of which 13,500 km are tolled. Over 90% of the tolled motorways are in France, Italy and Spain. In 1991, the annual revenue from tolls ranged from £500 million in Spain to over £1 billion in Italy and around £2 billion in France (DOT, 1993). France has the best developed system of toll motorways, constructed through letting concessions to semi-public bodies (Société d’Economie Mixte-SEM) which are contracted to build particular sections of road. Legislation has also been passed to allow private companies to build certain roads. In all cases the state has
implicitly supported the private sector by providing financial support through low or zero interest cash advances, guaranteed loans or the provision of related infrastructure. At present, France has seven autoroute SEMs, one private autoroute concessionaire (COFIROUTE), and two tunnel SEMs (DOT, 1993). The SEMs and COFIROUTE keep the revenues from the tolls which can then be used for road maintenance and the construction of new autoroutes.
