The Road Pricing Summit 2025 comes to Miami, Florida, USA on 18-19 September 2025 with a sharpened brief: to transform declining gas tax revenues into sustainable road funding.
This year’s Road Pricing Summit will showcase the latest tolling technologies, road-usage charging programmes and intelligent transport systems being trialled and implemented across the USA. With gas tax revenues set to erode as electrification accelerates and vehicles become more fuel efficient, and with political pressure building in congested corridors, the timing will be deliberate. The Summit will examine how pricing can fund roads fairly, support network performance and earn public trust.
Hosted at the Hyatt Regency Miami in Downtown Miami, the event will bring together leaders from state departments of transportation, metropolitan planning organisations, transit agencies, toll road operators, systems integrators, automotive manufacturers and suppliers, municipal councils, mobile network operators, telematics providers, consultancies, device and equipment suppliers, technology firms and mobility service providers. That mix of organisations will be by design.
“The Road Pricing Summit speaks more clearly to the diverse range of funding tools now being explored and implemented across the USA,” says John Thornton, editor-in-chief of CiTTi Magazine and chair of the event. “Our goal is to bring together the right people from public agencies, industry and research to address the urgent questions around how to pay for roads in a way that is fair, effective and future-ready.”
The programme prioritises depth over breadth, with several high-impact sessions setting the agenda. For example, Utah’s voluntary road usage charge, launched in 2020 as an alternative for electric, plug-in hybrid and mild hybrid vehicles, will be unpacked by Utah DOT executive director Carlos M Braceras, who will explain how successive federal STSFA grants will continue to support scale-up and service quality. A joint USDOT briefing will then set out state and federal perspectives on mileage-based user fees, comparing programme characteristics to show what will work at scale and what will still require policy attention.
Winning consent will be central. Shakir Hussein of Canadian e-toll road 407 ETR will outline how trust and transparent engagement will underpin equitable congestion pricing, moving projects from paper to practice. A focused tax policy panel featuring the USDOT, the International Fuel Tax Association and the Tax Foundation will test whether mileage fees will function as taxes or user fees, and how equity and efficiency will be balanced in statute and operations.
Ambition will be pushed further by Cornell University’s Rick Geddes, who will argue that real-time, network-wide pricing will now be technically feasible and could credibly eliminate congestion if paired with strong governance and communications. The Tax Foundation’s Alex Durante will make the fiscal case for shifting from fuel duty to distance-based models that will better align payment with use and stabilise long-term investment.
Both global and regional perspectives will further sharpen the US roadmap. Aurora Insights’ Xinchen Li will survey pricing trends from Europe, the Middle East and Africa and the Asia Pacific to show which approaches will translate best to American networks. Josh Brown of the Puget Sound Regional Council will set out how the Seattle region will integrate road pricing into transport and land-use planning. Meanwhile, the North Carolina Turnpike Authority will share updates on innovation that will improve customer experience and revenue resilience.
Across two highly concentrated days, the Road Pricing Summit will deliver practical detail on matters of technology, policy and operations, balanced with the engagement and tax perspectives that will ultimately determine success. For cities wrestling with congestion and for agencies confronting shrinking fuel duty, Miami in September will offer a clear view of what will come next – and how to get it done.
Meet our partners
Thought Leadership Partner
Aurora Insights is Akabo Media’s brand-new research and market intelligence service, with a sector focus on tolling and road-user charging. It offers a subscription-based service that entitles subscribers to exclusive video, audio and written content, including post-conference reports and analysis. The content is global, covering regions such as UK, Europe, America, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Pacific. All research is the culmination of Akabo Media’s 20-year history within the conference space, with the Road User Charging Conference series’ presentations, surveys, registration data and feedback acting as the driving force behind the platform’s content.
www.aurorainsights.co.ukNGO Partner
Founded in 1978, Reason Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation in the USA that focuses on an array of policy issues, including transportation, where its research focuses on user fee funding and sensible financing of transportation projects, efficient project delivery, and competitive and customer-driven services that embrace technological innovations. Through practical and innovative approaches to complex problems, Reason seeks to change the way people think about issues and promote policies that allow and encourage individuals and voluntary institutions to flourish.
www.reason.org
With a comprehensive agenda, high-level speakers and exclusive networking opportunities, the Road Pricing Summit is the only independent annual forum of its kind for tolling and road pricing professionals across the USA. Register here!
