FUTURE OUTLOOK ON COST BURDEN SYSTEMS FOR EXPRESSWAYS AND TRENDS IN TOLL ROAD SYSTEMS: With Particular Focus on Japan's National Expressways and Germany's Autobahn

摘要

All over the world, toll road systems are being introduced to expressways. In terms of cost burden, weight is being shifted from tax payer money to user tolls. In Japan's national expressways, it has been proposed to continue collecting maintenance and management costs after total costs have been redeemed. Germany introduced a toll system to the Autobahn on January 1,1995, though limited to 12 ton trucks and larger. In general, expressway construction and management have been handled by the public sector. It has already been proposed to privatize expressways as one form of deregulation, but it is necessary to study the feasibility of such a move. These studies are tried in this paper through a comparison between Japan and Germany. As for Japan, we explain the toll road system and redemption scheme. As for Germany, we talk about the process of introducing a toll system to the Autobahn and the introduction of private capital in road works. The feasibility of privatization of toll road works is discussed based on these studies. Though it is difficult to apply the private financing system to infrastructure construction, discussions are made as to the possible privatization of road management and maintenance services.