A timely article
Just recovering from the annual weekend drive from Garda to the SE UK, this year inconvenienced by a five hour wait at San Gottard and one of our party forgetting our passports and not finding out until we got to Como... Another four hours wasted. Some observations...
1) the Italian toll systems vary between pre/post pay, but at least you can read which lane is which from some distance away. Only came across a human in the cash lane once. Even locals don't bother with autocards
2) the French systems I used were all post-pay, no humans, signs are illegible esp at night until 100m away
3) there was no-one around to take money for my vignette in Switzerland, but they got all my money at the garage
4) Swiss road signs that say 90 minutes to wait are lying, best to go via Chur and Zurich
5) The Italian driver is not as scary as the Dutch driver in his urbanpanzerkinderwagen driving at 160km
6) Except for the gentleman near Milan who decided to stop his car and change his tyre ... on the slip road between autostrada. Last seen chatting cheerfully as a huge trailered lorry was screeching into my lane in an effort not to reduce him to passada
7) Nobody gets crosser than a Dutch driver in an urbanpanzerkinderwagen when you don't let them push into a toll queue. Seriously...
But mostly, I wondered why - on the first toll I come to - I can't pair a bank card and my registration plate and thereafter be done.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
