Interesting! I'll admit my sample size is limited to bridges in California, but at least in the Bay Area all the bridges only have tolls in one direction.
I suspect the Bay Area model is more common where the dominant traffic on a bridge is two-way commute traffic that can’t easily escape the toll regime for one side of the commute. In that case, one-way tolls reduce infrastructure and operating costs, and traffic impacts, of toll collection without any significant downside.
The other half of that is a practical matter -- collecting tolls in both directions means constructing and staffing a larger and more complex toll plaza. It's hard to justify that expense unless a lot of tolls will go uncollected without it.
> The other half of that is a practical matter -- collecting tolls in both directions means constructing and staffing a larger and more complex toll plaza
That’s part of what I waa getting at with “infrastructure cost”, yes.
That makes sense. It fits with the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which connects Tacoma (urban economic hub) to the Olympic Peninsula (some small towns, mostly wilderness).
