How to decide on regional infrastructure to achieve intra†regional acceptability and inter†regional consensus?**This project was funded by a grant from ERA†NET Transport's Surprice programme on road user charging for passenger vehicles. We thank Karin Brundell†Freij and a local Swedish civil servant, who both contributed to the formulation of the initial question as well as Gerard Brun (PREDIT) and Andre de Palma for helpful comments. We would also like to thank two anonymous referees for their useful comments on the paper

Many regions face through†traffic that causes local negative externalities. Regions might respond by imposing user charges or investing in bypass transport infrastructure. In this paper two levels of decision†making are studied: co†operation among regions and acceptability within regions. If left to a single region, it will overcharge for usage and under†invest in bypass capacity. Through interregional co†operation, an efficient outcome can be reached. Without compensation within each region, intraregional acceptability constraints protecting certain interest groups can lead to inefficient tolling. This can explain political preferences for tolling bypasses and not city centre roads.