Fees charged drivers must be legal and reasonable

A LAWYER IN GUANGZHOU, South China's Guangdong province, is suing a local expressway company after he was charged 10 yuan ($1.4) for using a highway designed to link non-adjacent towns to an expressway, which he claims he did not use. Legal Daily commented on Saturday:

The linking lanes usually have a tollgate on one end and a non-adjacent town on the other. In some cases, drivers who reach the tollgate from other lanes rather than tolled highway are still charged the extra fee. The Guangzhou lawyer is not alone in questioning whether a driver should pay for the highway linking to an expressway if he or she does not use it.

Expressway companies argue that they have the right to charge such a fee to cover the construction and maintenance costs of these lanes. While many drivers refuse to buy such an explanation because they believe that the pre-express lanes are not expressways and hence any such charges, which can be more expensive than toll fees, are illegitimate.