Motorway toll booth, from now on if you use gear it is a crime: a habit to be eradicated | €1,730 fine – 0-100 LifeStyle Watch Engines

You have to start breaking this terrible habit because if they catch you doing it at the toll booth the fine exceeds €1,700, you’ll never forget it.

That of road safety it is an argument that has been argued and rehashed several times in all places and in all ways, but which nevertheless never gets old. Accidents and tragedies continue to happen every year, and until the general awareness of Italian motorists has increased we will not be able to claim victory.

Attention must always be paid when driving, even when carrying out a maneuver at less than ten kilometers per hour, but there are scenarios in which an error can cause truly serious damage. This happens in situations of high traffic and high speed, and we can find these conditions on highways.

It is no coincidence that the Highway Code regulates traffic on motorways in such a serious and rigid manner, with heavy fines and sanctions foreseen for the most dangerous infringements. The quibble that sometimes misleads motorists is that also the toll boothsboth incoming and outgoing, are considered as motorway territory and fall within article 176 of the Highway Code.

What you can’t do on the highway, you can’t even do it at the toll booth. But what does this mean in detail? What are the potentially dangerous – and fineable – situations to stay away from?

What you should never do at a motorway toll booth

When approaching the motorway toll booth, you must not let your guard down. The lanes are indicated in an extremely conspicuous and clear manner, divided into payment and subscription methods: cash, cards and Telepass. Neither distraction nor greed must win over us, so we must queue up in the correct lane, collect our ticket and continue.

What happens instead?by mistake or “slyness”, should we take the wrong lane? For example, we could queue up in the card lane even though we only have cash, or vice versa; or we could end up in the much more accessible Telepass lane even without having the necessary season ticket. How should we behave?

Never reverse at a toll booth

We should never reverse if we get stuck in the wrong lane. In fact, reversing is prohibited on motorways and, as previously mentioned, the toll booth is part of it. The penalty for this error is fatal: fine from 431 euros to 1,734 euros and ten points deduction from the driving licence.

What needs to be done instead is to alert the operators present at the toll booth to resolve the problem; alternatively, if there are no operators present, you must collect the ticket normally (in the “wrong” lane), then hand it over to the operator at the exit (in the correct lane) and request a calculation of the amount to be paid. If there were no operators we couldn’t do it here either collect the non-payment receipt and repair the debt in the following days.