It's a toll booth. We seemed to take routes that had plenty of them. Jose said the government built the highways, then sold them to private companies to recoup their investment. The private companies then charge fees to cover maintenance and profit. Otherwise, the government would have to raise taxes to pay for highway maintenance. Then people would be upset over the high taxes. Except that they DO have high taxes, and the people are wise to the government's trick of selling assets to hide the true cost of the government.