Do you drive in France? Watch out for barrier-free toll roads

Watch out to not overlook to pay: motorists must arrange themselves in the event that they wish to keep away from a advantageous to take the A79, the primary toll motorway with no toll barrier in France, which opens Friday in Allier (heart).

Having existed for a very long time in a number of nations, any such “free circulate” motorway is ready to grow to be widespread in France within the coming years. The Normandy Autoroute can be subsequent on the checklist. A motorway in Haute-Savoie can also be on the checklist.

Customers will be capable to journey on the approved pace, with out slowing down or stopping, passing beneath gates outfitted with cameras and sensors that can establish their automobile.

They may then have a number of methods to pay, explains Pierre Méau, deputy buyer director of Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhône (APRR). The group has remodeled 88 km of nationwide N79 – harmful, however free – into the A79 motorway – toll – between Montmarault (Allier) and Digoin (Saône-et-Loire).

A number of methods to pay

The best answer is to acquire a traditional digital toll badge, whatever the provider. You can too pay on the location of the brand new motorway, both by registering your registration quantity and financial institution particulars as soon as and for all, or by paying for every passage. Final risk: 16 terminals alongside the freeway, which is able to will let you pay by card or money.

“The shopper has 72 hours to pay for his journey”, underlines Mr. Méau. In any other case a advantageous of 90 euros can be added to the quantity of the toll, and even 375 euros with out cost inside 60 days. The operator can have entry to the file of European registration plates.

Going hand in hand with the event of digital and on-line funds, the adoption of free circulate was requested by the French State when it chosen APRR (a subsidiary of Eiffage) to construct the A79. All new motorways will observe this mannequin like the long run A69 between Toulouse and Castres, notes the supervisor.

From South Africa to Portugal

The system is sort of widespread in lots of nations, between Johannesburg and Pretoria in South Africa, round Toronto in Canada, on the city highways of Santiago-de-Chile, in lots of American states, on the Autostrada pedemontana lombarda close to Milan , in Italy, on many roads in Norway, on half of the Portuguese motorways or to enter Gothenburg or Stockholm in Sweden.

In France, the Société des Autoroutes du Nord et de l’Est de la France (Sanef) remodeled the Boulay-Moselle interchange on the A4 motorway right into a laboratory, eradicating the bodily obstacles there in 2019.

Regardless of a number of incidents initially, “the system has demonstrated its reliability and prospects have grow to be accustomed to this new cost system”, assures its normal supervisor Arnaud Quemard.

Sanef has subsequently undertaken to transform the Normandy motorway, which sees 32,000 vehicles a day, to free circulate.

“On the A13 and the A14 between Paris and Caen, there are 5 obstacles, with pretty sturdy commuting site visitors and vital weekend peaks. At every toll barrier, there’s a cease with doubtlessly corks”, explains Mr. Quemard.

These obstacles can be steadily changed by gates between mid-2024 and mid-2025. “The target is to straighten the freeway”, by returning to nature 28 hectares – the equal of 40 soccer fields – at the moment occupied by toll stations, he specifies.

Fewer site visitors jams, much less air pollution

Arnaud Quemard guarantees time financial savings, gas financial savings and reductions in CO2 emissions into the ambiance. The funding is valued at round 120 million euros, partly coated by a modest annual enhance in tolls. However opposite to what one may assume, switching to free circulate doesn’t get monetary savings.

“In the present day, on the toll in Normandy, now we have round 150 staff. To function the identical free-flow motorway, we are going to want round 300”, who will primarily take care of buyer relations, signifies Mr Quemard.

“We’ve an enormous stake in retraining our employees, and now we have assured all our toll staff that we’ll discover appropriate employment for them”, he underlines.

Among the many subsequent motorways to modify to free circulate, the Autoroute blanche (A40) in Haute-Savoie, which the corporate Autoroutes et tunnel du Mont-Blanc (ATMB) intends to transform “within the medium time period”, citing the standard of the highway as the rationale. air within the Arve valley.

This text has been printed routinely. Sources: ats / afp