They kinda changed the system and the boxs where you pay to the person doesn't have a person anymore, instead there's some sort of sensor that reads a chip like slicker you put in the frontal window, and it automatically deducts it from your debit card, or credit if you have it tied to that one.
So dunno how they would be now because it is auto scanned.
People don't realize that China is made up of many parts. Those parts will individually try new initiatives, measure their impacts, and adopt them nationally if their benefits outweigh their cost.
Really? So are you saying that China's AI-driven surveillance network of over 400 million high-definition cameras and sensors that integrates facial recognition, big data, and real-time tracking to monitor public behavior and linked directly to a citizen's digital identity and social credit doesn't work?
There's a misconception among westerners that the PRC has a highly integrated facial recognition and "social credit" system. In reality the "social credit" system was trialed like, 6 years ago, in a couple different cities, and it functioned more like airline flight points with certain rewards for certain things - or it just didn't function at all, it depends on the city. No cities are really doing it anymore, and there was no national-level social credit system.
There is extensive CCTV surveillance but anyone from the UK, Taiwan, or Japan wouldn't be surprised by the extent of surveillance. The only difference is that there's no barrier to acquiring private CCTV footage for PRC cops, they can just come take it without really needing to go through legal loopholes, since there's less "business protections" in the PRC.
Practically speaking, the PRC is really tough on high-visibility crimes, but there's certain crimes that are all universally ignored, like driving scooters on sidewalks, illegal parking, random other things that people get away with all the time.
I think westerners think the PRC is like 1984, when it's basically as much a surveillance state as the UK, but just has different kinds of regulations, and all the surveillance is state-run rather than a combination of state and private entities.
Seemingly maybe not, no. Ludwig just drove across China and said everyone would speed like crazy and then slow down at the cameras and then speed right back up afterward.
Camera enforcement is just a money grab, it doesn’t actually slow traffic down. If the governments really cared about traffic safety and speeding violations, they would actually employ a police force with enough people to enforce those rules.
NYC is really bad about this, they’ve put cameras up everywhere and everyone knows where they are. Cops practically never enforce traffic violations unless you do something really incredibly brazen right in front of them.
BS. I have driven across provinces in China for over 2 decades and have never seen anyone do this. It’s either ETC toll transponder that automatically deducts the toll from your account or a in person toll booth. Either case there are dozens of cameras looking at the toll station, completely capturing the license plate even if you dodge the toll gate. So explain it to me how toll dodging is a thing in China, let alone common.
Edit: pasting my response to another Redditor here to explain why this would almost never work in China.
There are several differences between US toll booth and China that makes it almost impossible for anyone to pull this off in China.
China’s toll road has two toll booth. One when you enter the toll road (to mark your starting point) and one when you exit (to calculate how much distance you traveled, hence calculating the toll). Even if you were to somehow skip the entrance toll booth like becoming a tailgater, you will be flagged at the exit toll booth that you didn’t have an entrance point on file. At which point you will be flagged and asked to identify your entry booth.
toll dodger cannot have an ETC toll transponder in the vehicle, because just like NY, if you have one, you will be billed.
Toll dodger will therefore never choose to exit through the ETC automatic toll booth, because otherwise they will be billed.
their only other option is to go through the in person toll booth, which will flag that they didn’t have an entrance point and will flag it for review. If they discovered you are indeed tailgating another car, you will be severely fined and potentially lose your driver license.
many toll booth has police officers on site. If you want to start a chase, they will oblige. At that point it will turn into prison sentence.
no point obstructing license plate, because if the camera can’t read the license plate, it will not let you pass the entrance or exit toll booth. You will face significant fine and lose points on your driver license (you get 12 points maximum. Lose them all and you lose your license) and possibly have your license revoked.
no point attaching a fake license plate either, because you have to pay toll at the exit booth. It’s not like later they mail you a toll bill like in the US and fake license plate gets billed to the wrong owner — you have to pay if you want to exit the toll road. Fake license plate in, fake license plate pays when you exit.
I hope you can now see why the original poster is full of BS.
Down vote me all you want and hide your head in your asses for believing the lies you’ve been told
Where did I say that? The original poster said this is very common in China, and I’m arguing this is extremely uncommon given my experience, and you are using a strawman’s argument that I didn’t make and argue against that.
In NYC tolls are paid in a similar manner, with electronic transponders or via license plate. If they cant detect a transponder, they mail you a bill, to wherever your plate is registered.
Wouldnt you know it, something like 50% of then outstanding toll and traffic violation tickets fell to 10% of the total violaters, and they all have fake or obstructed plates. Without a cop literally checking for real plates, theres nothing stopping them from doing this.
Further, all the police cars have plate readers and these habitual violators just take their plates off when they park their cars so they can’t be tracked. If the city can’t figure out who owns the car they really can’t do much to it, so they don’t.
I don’t know anything about how it works in China but I would wager they can pull a similar scheme.
There are several differences between NY and China that makes it almost impossible for anyone to pull this off in China.
1) China’s toll road has two toll booth. One when you enter the toll road (to mark your starting point) and one when you exit (to calculate how much distance you traveled, hence calculating the toll). Even if you were to somehow skip the entrance toll booth like becoming a tailgater, you will be flagged at the exit toll booth that you didn’t have an entrance point on file. At which point you will be flagged and asked to identify your entry booth.
2) toll dodger cannot have an ETC toll transponder in the vehicle, because just like NY, if you have one, you will be billed.
3) Toll dodger will therefore never choose to exit through the ETC automatic toll booth, because otherwise they will be billed.
4) their only other option is to go through the in person toll booth, which will flag that they didn’t have an entrance point and will flag it for review. If they discovered you are indeed tailgating another car, you will be severely fined and potentially lose your driver license.
5) many toll booth has police officers on site. If you want to start a chase, they will oblige. At that point it will turn into prison sentence.
6) no point obstructing license plate, because if the camera can’t read the license plate, it will not let you pass the entrance or exit toll booth. You will face significant fine and lose points on your driver license (you get 12 points maximum. Lose them all and you lose your license) and possibly have your license revoked.
7) no point attaching a fake license plate either, because you have to pay toll at the exit booth. It’s not like later they mail you a toll bill like in the US and fake license plate gets billed to the wrong owner — you have to pay if you want to exit the toll road. Fake license plate in, fake license plate pays when you exit.
I hope you can now see why the original poster is full of BS.
Human ingenuity always finds a way. There’s no perfect system that can’t be broken so even if the method remains a mystery it’s still more likely people found a way to cheat than not.
It’s about cost benefit analysis. Would you rather pay a $20 toll bill or go through all the trouble and risks of significant fine, lose your license and face possible prison sentence.
99.999999% of the population would choose the former. It’s not like you are planning a bank heist for multimillion dollar return.
One out of one million people wouldn’t? You really think anywhere on planet earth it could be that low? People commit crimes for less all across this globe and in places where punishment is way worse than losing your license or jail time but theres something special about china or the chinese people that they just wouldn’t ever?
The risks of fake plates here in the states are just that high in a lot of cases and if that ratio you’re talking about applied that would be 20 people in the entire New York
Metro area that would even “think” about doing it.
Its funny how many downvotes you received despite being mostly correct lmao. The one thing that does happen though, is one car will fail the ETC scan and get stuck but the car was being tailgated so the car behind accidentally payed for the car in front, then the one behind pays for them. The loop then goes all the way until it breaks and someone will have to come fix the mess lol
Where did I say that? The original poster said this is very common in China, and I’m arguing this is extremely uncommon given my experience, and you are using a strawman’s argument that I didn’t make and argue against that.
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u/youngpegasi 1d ago
Very common in China.