Time for a road trip? It's cheaper to fly
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And then there are those obvious wastes and excesses at the toll booths. China not only has the longest mileages of highway in the world, it also has the world's most beautiful and most expensive toll booths. Every time I drive by a toll booth and see a nice office building nearby for the so-called management staff, I can't help thinking of the AC/DC song "Highway to Hell!"
China's highway system is also Balkanized in a way that adversely affects inter-province commerce. Since the administration power of highway systems lies at the provincial level, each province builds its own road and its own toll booths. This has created bizarre situations at highway provincial borders where two respective toll booths belonging to each province lie literally within a few hundred meters of each other, each collecting its own money. The ensuring traffic jams don't matter as long as the cash registers ring.
Traffic jams caused by toll booth delays are notorious in China. According to traffic law, when the line of waiting traffic is over 200 meters long and when all lanes at the toll booth are not fully open, drivers have the right to pass free. I have certainly run into such situations many times, and I have never enjoyed such a free ride.
And then there are the real free riders, whose costs have to be ultimately paid by ordinary citizens. For people in military vehicles, ambulance, fire-engines, and other men and women putting their life on the line to protect us citizens, I have no grudge against them saving a few yuan on the road. But for those high-ranking government official free riders who proclaim they are citizens' civil servants, I say, "We hold these truths to be self-evident …"
A radio host in the US once said, "Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across most of the country from coast to coast without seeing anything."
The statement is bitterly sarcastic. But it is indeed true that it is possible to travel across the country in the US without paying anything. Will this ever be possible in China?
The author is a faculty member of the Beijing-based University of International Business and Economics. johngong@gmail.com
