"Kvish Shesh" is Hebrew for Road #6, the newest superhighway to grace our transport system in Israel. Unlike Roads #1 through #5, Road #6 is a toll road. It uses the latest technology - at least what Israelis regard as the latest technology - to go about the business of collecting tolls.
When the car enters onto the road, a camera photographs its license plate. When it leaves the road, another camera photographs it leaving. There are other methods of monitoring tolls as well. One can subscribe and get an electronic box for the car that responds with their electronic box. Computers compile the data and after a while, you get a bill in the mail for the toll. If you don't pay, the corporation that runs Kvish Shesh seeks - and always gets - a court order to open up a "standing order" to withdraw funds from your bank account. If you don't cooperate with them, they just dig through the computerized data associated with your vehicle and find a bank account with your name on it - and stick their standing order on that account. Then, in addition to the original toll, they stick on interest and penalties.
As you can imagine, this leaves endless room for fraudulent claims, arguing, negotiating - and complaints on the e-mail list I belong to for immigrants and would-be immigrants. That is usually what happens when Kvish Shesh comes up as a thread for discussion.
But not always. The original question (from the States) was, "Why did one get a bill after using a highway?" This was answered (by yours truly). But in Israel, you never get one answer. Either you get an amen corner or an argument. The following is an example of someone expanding on the issue.
There are a few levels of subscriptions. You get the best price when you buy/put a deposit down for their black box, which has sticky tape. You put it under the very top of your windshield, and it beeps each time you pass through the "toll gate." There's a toll gate right after every entrance onto the road, so if you travel three entrances, you are charged about three times the fee your level costs (it's actually a slightly sliding scale), up to a maximum of (I think) NIS 12 for the whole length of the road.
The road right now runs from just about Beersheba until the East-West road running from Haifa to Tiveria. It intersects with Route 1 (Jerusalem-Tel Aviv) where 443 intersects, two miles or so before the airport.
The company wants to extend the south end to Eilat (which would be great), and the north end up to Metulla/Harmon (going skiing from Jerusalem would take only three hours instead of double that).
One of the best things about the road is the speed limit is officially 110 kph (70 mph). One of the more dangerous things about the road is that few stick to the speed limit (I've seen at least 160 (100 mph) at times), so when there are accidents, there are usually fatalities.
Eventually, the topic wandered into driving safety and car accidents, and even went into OT (off topic, not overtime) territory. That is where it got interesting.
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