Cost Recovery from Optimally Designed Roads

If vehicles are charged for the road damage they cause, only a fraction of maintenance costs will be recovered. This paper proves that with constant returns to scale in construction and use, the balance, together with interest on the capital cost, will be recovered by congestion charges. Congestion costs are calculated for Britain, and shown to slightly exceed the total recurrent highway costs and interest on the capital value. Copyright 1989 by The London School of Economics and Political Science.