Graham DownsSo #eTolls are officially being switched off at 23:59 SAST on 11 April 2024.
https://techcentral.co.za/e-tolls-scrapped/242195/?utm_source=Mastodon
I must say, I'm kind of sad at what a mammoth disaster this whole thing turned out to be. I remember thinking when it started that it was a fine, perfectly fair and equitable way of paying for the road improvements. If you use the highway, you pay. If you don't use the highway, you don't pay. Plus, we always assumed there'd be a certain amount of people who weren't prepared to pay, but the understanding was that those people would find alternative routes, which would ease the traffic on the highways. Win-win-win. I never really understood why people hated the idea so much.
And in the beginning, they made it painstakingly clear how easy it was to get an exemption. Taxis and busses and other companies providing transportation to people could get exemptions. Those earning below a certain threshold could get exemption... Hell, anyone giving me a lift could've gotten an exemption, on account of my visual impairment.
But no, that wasn't good enough for people. The amount of resistance this thing got... crazy. It was doomed from the start.
People rather wanted it to come out of the fuel levy. But how is THAT fair? The more you drive, the more fuel you use, the more you pay... whether you physically use the roads that e-tolls were meant to pay for or not.
