E-toll booths set to end congestion

All nine toll booths in Shanghai bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces will be replaced by electronic toll collection systems by the end of this year, said Shanghai Transportation Commission on Friday.

The commission expects 80 percent of cars in Shanghai will install the system. Drivers who use ETC get a five percent discount.

Gu Yinxiang from Shanghai Public Traffic Card Group, the company that operates the ETC system, said drivers can join the system at service stations on expressways. The installation is free.

The traffic commission said it takes a sedan roughly 15 seconds and a truck 29 seconds to pass manual toll booths, but with ETC, each needs less than three seconds.

From August 1, the drivers can also apply for an ETC system online from Alipay, the public transportation card app and other bank apps.

Foreigners won’t be able to apply for the ETC system for now, Gu said. He explained that applying for the system requires the applicant to provide both road-worthiness certificate and ID, and the name on the two identifications must be exactly the same.

“The certificate requires name of the driver to be written in Chinese,” Gu said. "In China, the name on road-worthiness certificate must be the same with ID or passport, so foreingers can't apply for the ETC, as their name on the passport is not in Chinese.  Solution to foreingers is still under discussion."

The modification of the toll booths is underway. More than 300 ETC portals will be built at the tolls and 556 lanes will be remodeled.

According to the traffic commission, there are 2 million cars in Shanghai with the ETC system.

The commission will reserve one lane for manual toll fee collection (foreigners and people from out of town) as 90 percent of vehicles will be automatically charged.