Toll roads are one of the few ways of raising transportation revenue that seem to be able to get through legislatures these days.
E.g.
http://www.virginiahotlanes.com/
In 1980 Republican presidential candidate John Anderson had a proposal to increase the US gasoline tax by $0.10 per gallon for 5 years. Though I voted for him, he didn't win. ;-) The "trust fund" that supposedly funds work on the Interstate highways regularly runs low on cash these days. Apparently the last time that there was talk of raising the federal gasoline taxes was 2005 -
http://en.wikipedia....8United_States%29 .
As the original link points out, funding for transportation infrastructure has been strangled in the US for a long time. In the last few years bridges have collapsed, people have been killed in subway train collisions, and there's the increasing problem of gridlocked traffic.
Just last week I had the pleasure of sitting in traffic for 35 minutes in a stretch of road that should only take about 2 minutes.... :-(
There's no longer going to be enough lanes for everyone who wants to drive into DC or London or LA to get to work by 9:00 to do so in a reasonable amount of time. Toll roads and/or congestion pricing is a good way to force employees and employers to find ways to avoid the tax, or pay the tax and in the process support necessary infrastructure.
Reading the Wikipedia article, it's clear that the London Congestion Charge hasn't been a funding windfall for transportation. But it does seem to have substantially reduced traffic and that's a good thing.
http://en.wikipedia....congestion_charge
Yeah, taxes suck. But it's the price of living in a functioning society. I would have no problem paying a DC congestion tax, myself.
Cheers,
Scott.