According to the company Two Capitals Highway, the operator of M11 toll highway at section km 546-684, there were 930 vehicles that made their way to St. Petersburg as "free riders” in the last month of summer. These are cars, trucks and motorcycles that left the highway at sections from Veliky Novgorod to St. Petersburg without paying toll.
Since the beginning of 2020, the number of violating vehicles recorded by cameras at three toll plazas managed by Two Capitals Highway (km 546 – Veliky Novgorod, km 650 – Tosno, and km 681 – St. Petersburg) reached 6,510. This is about 3.5 million rubles as payment for using M-11 Neva Highway that have not been received by the state budget. Offenders account for approximately 0.24% of traffic; in April, there were 326 of them at three toll plazas, in August – 1,246. A year ago, the share of “free riders” could even reach 15%; their number was reduced due to the installation of inflexible lifting gates (bending booms were used previously), as well as careful recording of violations and registration of traffic accidents when the equipment was damaged.
The main weapon of the “free riders” is ramming: most drivers simply knock down the lifting gate, forgetting that damage to the lifting gate is a traffic accident, and the guilty party may lose their drivers license for leaving the accident scene. Each case is recorded by CCTV cameras, so it is impossible to escape punishment.
In the future, it is planned to introduce fines for travel without payment. Let us remind you that the maximum toll on M11 for the section St. Petersburg – Moscow is 2,560 rubles for cash payments and 1,860 rubles for payments with a T-pass transponder.
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