
Back Road Pricing Summit 2026 to debut in Washington, DC ahead of federal reauthorisation deadline
Organisers are positioning the Summit – which forms part of Akabo Media’s global Road User Charging Conference series – as an implementation-led programme for agencies and suppliers working across tolling, managed lanes, ITS, congestion pricing and road user charging (RUC), with a clear emphasis on what must be delivered in the next cycle of funding, rules and policy permissions.
The agenda is framed around a practical “12-month roadmap”, aiming to help public sector leaders and industry partners align policy, grants and procurement decisions for 2026–2028.
John Thornton, chair of the Road Pricing Summit, said: “The US conversation is shifting from ‘should we?’ to ‘how do we deliver?’ By timing the Summit around reauthorisation and building the programme around operations and delivery, it is designed to help agencies and suppliers map the next 12-18 months with clarity and confidence.”
A central objective for 2026 is to broaden the Summit’s appeal beyond policy audiences and ensure it speaks as directly to the tolling and managed lanes community as it does to road pricing and RUC stakeholders.
As a result, the programme places strong emphasis on the realities of running systems at scale, including interoperability that goes beyond transponders into accounts, payments and clearing, as well as back-office modernisation and cost-to-collect.