Quite a few countries have extra charges for using their motorways, and sometimes other roads, especially those running over bridges or through tunnels. You can normally use the ordinary roads without charge, A few countries impose a temporary road tax on all visitors to the country, but within the Schengen group this is not very practical. Then there is the London congestion charge, though motorcycles are exempt from this.
There are basically two ways to charge for using motorways. One is a straight toll, with a booth. This is used in France, Ireland, Poland, Spain, Portugal and Greece. Tolls are the normal system for bridges and tunnels, too. Almost all accept credit cards, even for tiny amounts, and will issue receipts, but the Dartford Crossing in the UK is a notable exception. Not only do they refuse to accept cards or to issue receipts: they look at you as if you are crazy if you suggest either.
The other approach is with a vignette or road-use permit. These first appeared, as far as we recall, in Switzerland, but they soon spread to Austria and then to Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. These can normally be bought at petrol stations, tourist offices and other locations; this is also the system used for road charging (the so-called 'congestion charge') in London, though this is unusual in being charged by the day, and linked to numberplate recognition cameras: this is why you give your registration number when you buy one.
Slovakian tolls.
The degree of complication varies widely. The Austrians are admirably simple. If it's a motorway, you need a vignette. This is clearly marked at the beginning of the motorway, and if you venture on without one, you risk a fine. There are spot-checks on the off-ramps; we were checked in June 2008. The vignette must be affixed to a part of the motorcycle that cannot easily be exchanged, whatever that may mean: we fix ours to one of the rear-view mirrors, which takes about two minutes to swap. But the police were happy enough.
You can buy Austrian vignettes for various periods, and for various classes of vehicle. For motorcycles, for example, the prices in July 2008 (in fact, since December 2007) were 4.40 euros for 10 days, 11.10 for 2 months and 29.90 a year. For other vehicles under 3.5 tonnes, the corresponding figures were 7.70, 22.20 and 73.80.
In the Czech Republic, motorcycles are exempt but other vehicles under 3.5 tonnes pay 220 koruna for 7 days, 330 koruna a month and 1000 koruna a year; at July 2008 exchange rates of about 24 koruna/euro, about 5 euros, 7.50 and 42 euros. As in Hungary, some 'expressways' are designated as roads requiring a vignette, but this seems to be only for heavy trucks, not cars and motorcycles (do not rely on the last piece of advice). You are required to remove expired vignettes and to enter your registration mark on them as they are installed.
The Hungarians have a fiendishly complicated e-vignette (matrica, pronounced matritsa) system with five classes of vehicles and six time periods (1 day, applicable only to heavy vehicles, 4 day, 10 day, 1 month and 1 year) and like the London congestion charge these are linked to vehicle registration marks. To make life more interesting still, the price of the 4-day passes varies with the season, so there are both standard and peak charges. Officially both motorcycles and vehicles under 3.5 tonnes are category D1 but motorcycles pay only half as much as cars: 18,600/37,200 forints a year, 2100/4200 forints a month, 1225/2550 forints for 10 days and either 585/1170 (standard) or 765/1530 (peak) forints for four days. Taking the two extremes -- a car for a year and a motorcycle for four days -- with the forint at 235 to the euro (July 2008), 37,200 ft is about 160 euros and 585 ft is about 2.50.
Worse, some roads require vignettes for trucks but not for cars (let alone motorcycles). Once you are aware of this, and of the multiple kinds of matrica, your paranoia at seeing matrica signs diminishes somewhat, but we just found it easier to avoid the motorways. The Hungarians are also threatening to introduce proportional road pricing in 2009, though only for trucks at first.
Mountain road, Austria.
Slovakia seems to follow the same model as the Czech Republic, but as we didn't use their motorways, we are not entirely sure whether motorcycles are exempt. Fees are comparable, but in Slovak crowns, not Czech.
In Switzerland it's a flat annual fee of 40 Swiss Francs per year, car or motorcycle: about 25 euros. Switzerland and Austria are the only countries where it's all but impossible to travel without using the toll roads.
More on this fraught topic as we discover it...
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© 2008 Roger W. Hicks