ahead. In China, which is building more toll roads than any other
country in the world, legions of drivers are trying almost anything
to avoid them. On a highway two miles from Chen Village, vehicles
must stop at this toll station. To avoid paying, drivers often detour
through the village. In Chongqing, a sprawling municipality in
central China, so many owners of private cars and trucks are using
fraudulent toll-exempt military plates that one toll highway has
estimated its annual losses at roughly 10 million yuan, or $1.2
million. In March a driver outfitted his vehicle like an ambulance,
with flashing lights and an emergency response phone number painted
on the side. He then raced through a highway tollbooth as if rushing
to a hospital, until the police arrested him.
...
By 2020, if all goes as planned, China will have completed almost
53,000 miles of expressways, a network roughly equivalent to the
Interstate System in the United States. China considers expressways
crucial to maintaining its economic growth and developing its western
and interior provinces. But the cost is so exorbitant that China is
financing much of the system with tolls that are, by Chinese
standards, pricey.
...
A recent World Bank report on China's highway construction program
found that the toll roads were charging roughly the same as the
German toll system - about 25 cents a mile for trucks - despite far
lower incomes in China."
Source: New York Times, May 16, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/world/asia/16tolls.html
