Should road users pay the full cost of road provision?

This paper shows that when a road is being used by two groups of users at d ifferent time periods, the standard self-financing result no longer holds u nder a uniform tolling regime. The cost of an optimal road may be lower or higher than the revenue from the efficient uniform toll. However, the self- financing (with or without surplus) seems to be the exception rather than t he rule, and the deviation from self-financing may be quantitatively signif icant. As a consequence, when pricing is not discriminating between groups of homogeneous users, road users should not usually pay the full cost of ro ad provision. (C) 2001 Academic Press.