The Ministry of Transportation and Communications promised yesterday to consider a KMT lawmaker's call to raise the speed limit from 100kph to 120kph on the nation's main north-south freeway.
"Our research team will look into this proposal. We will complete our research within six months and decide whether the speed limit can be raised," said Lin Dah-yuh (林大煜), director-general of the ministry's Institute of Transportation.
KMT Legislator Chi Kuo-tung (
"In some countries, there are no speed limits on freeways at all. Vehicles are far more advanced than before. Road safety facilities have also greatly improved. People can drive faster nowadays," he said.
"The Sun Yat-sen Freeway was constructed more than 20 years ago and the speed limit has only been raised once, from 90kph to 100kph," Chi said. "A lot of drivers complain about the low speed limit on the national freeway."
While PFP Legislator Chung Chao-ho (
"The reason we keep the speed limit at 100kph is because accidents tend to occur at exits and on winding sections of the road," Lin said.
"I cannot say whether the speed limit will be raised again. Last year, when the speed limit was increased from 90kph to 100kph, many scholars had suggested that 100kph was already the upper limit," Lin said.
The Sun Yat-sen Freeway was completed in 1978. Its speed limit of 90kph was raised to 100kph in December last year.
An official with the Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau said that the freeway was designed to accommodate a speed limit of 120kph.
The fine for violating the speed limit on the freeway is NT$3,000.
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