The residents of Chongming county have the lowest average income in Shanghai, yet they pay more for their daily commute than anyone else in the city.

The reason for this bit of city trivia is the 50 yuan ($8) cost of crossing the Yangtze River Tunnel and Bridge, which is the only road connecting the island with the rest of Shanghai. The toll has remained the same since the route opened in October 2009.

Anyone who drives from Chongming to downtown Shanghai has to spend 100 yuan on tolls a day just to get to work, and that does not include the cost of fuel or other transportation expenses. Many residents have been complaining for years about how expensive the toll is.

The subject of the toll comes up every year in January, when the city's policymakers and advisors meet. In 2012, a policy advisor suggested that the toll be reduced to 15 yuan. Unfortunately, the suggestion went unheeded.

This year, three policy advisors proposed that the government reduce the unreasonably high toll, at least for residents of the island. They suggested that a monthly or yearly pass should be introduced to make the toll more affordable for the commuters who regularly used the bridge and tunnel.

One of the advisors, Li Fenhua, suggested prices of 300 yuan for a monthly pass and at 3,000 yuan for a yearly pass for Chongming county residents. For residents of other parts of Shanghai, Li suggested slightly higher prices of 400 yuan for a monthly pass and at 4,000 yuan for a yearly pass.

The city's transportation authority said that related departments had started researching the proposal.

It's hard to imagine that people need to pay such a high toll to travel within the city limits. The toll for the highway linking Shanghai and Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, is also 50 yuan. But that highway crosses a provincial border and spans 100 kilometers. In comparison, the length of the Yangtze River Tunnel and Bridge is 25.5 kilometers.

Drivers have to pay tolls to travel to other highways that link downtown to distant suburbs, but none is as high as 50 yuan.

These tolls are collected in the name of maintaining the highways and alleviating traffic congestion. But the thing is that car owners are already paying fuel taxes, which include a portion known as road maintenance fees. And this sum of money is supposed to be used not just to maintain the roads.

It is unfair that car owners need to repeatedly pay for maintaining these roads. Highways are part of a city's traffic infrastructure and the government has the obligation to shoulder the cost of construction and operation. Above all, the finances funded by the general public should be used to benefit the people.

And it is a lame excuse to suggest that charging a toll can help relieve traffic congestion, which essentially requires a comprehensive plan to better coordinate different traffic resources. Addressing traffic congestion requires enhancing the city's commuting efficiency, not asking for money from car owners.

Despite the 50 yuan toll, traffic congestion continues to exist at the tollgates of the Yangtze River Tunnel and Bridge during holidays.

It's worth mentioning that the tolls also affect commuters who take public transportation. It costs as much as 16 yuan to take a city bus downtown to Chongming. The trip is expensive when compared to the 2 yuan fare to ride most city buses in Shanghai.