Within the past ten-and-a-half years, since the toll roads have switched to electronic toll collection systems -- the Card Passage System (KGS) and the Automatic Passage System (OGS) -- some 12 million motor vehicles have passed the booths illegally. Tolls are paid via electronic remote sensors, and cars do not stop for toll collection. Drivers load units on either KGS cards or OGS hologram chips. If a vehicle passes without paying, the sensors and security cameras make a record of its plate number and the driver is later levied a fine, 11 times the amount per passage. The electronic toll collection systems were first introduced in 1999 to minimize traffic jams since the slowing down of vehicles to make cash payments was exacerbating traffic problems on the entry to the bridge.
Speaking to Today's Zaman, State Highways 17th Regional Directorate General Manager Yakup Dost said the system observed all cars and avoided any possible abuse. Dost said people either forget to load their systems or ran out of units, but for the most part they don't have their cards or holograms with them. “We make every illegal ‘passer' pay their fines, there is no escape,” he said, adding that illegal crossings via the two bridges have increased in the past few years.
Today there are currently 2 million OGS users in Turkey, while the number of KGS subscribers has reached 1.5 million. Some 80 percent of the total OGS and KGS users reside in İstanbul, with a vehicle count of 3 million. However, the number of drivers who violate the rules, taking advantage of some 60 KGS and OGS booths, is increasing daily. The incidence of KGS and OGS violations has skyrocketed within the past few years, following a dramatic increase in vehicles. The average number of illegal passages has reached 6,500 per day, the majority of which are motorcycles.
Some of the illegal passers escape the cameras by hiding their plates. Dost argues, however, that such incidences are very few although people do try other tricks to pass for free. “I would not recommend that drivers try to avoid paying. The electronic toll system offers various advantages; it is fast and cheap.”
A major problem that drivers complain about is that the system sometimes fails to operate properly and records vehicles as passing illegally although they have paid or drivers are unaware they have run out of units and think they have paid. However, subscribers can avoid such problems by having an automatic payment order for their KGS or OGS trips on their bank accounts.
