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ETC lanes to stay restricted on holidays

Minister of Transportation and Communications Kuo Yao-chi (郭瑤琪) said yesterday that it would not be feasible to open electronic toll-collection (ETC) lanes to vehicles without an onboard unit during holidays.

Kuo was responding to an appeal by the Consumers' Foundation that all lanes be open to all vehicles to ease the congestion at freeway toll collection stations.

"The ministry has studied the option and found it not to be feasible," Kuo said, adding that if the ETC-exclusive lanes were to be open to all vehicles, there could be chaos and confusion.

Since the formal launch of the ETC system on Feb. 10, public discontent with the system has increased because of congestion in the non-ETC lanes at the tollbooths.

At a press conference earlier yesterday the foundation urged that the ETC-only lanes be open to other vehicles on holidays.

Foundation chairman Jason Lee (李鳳翱) said relatively few vehicles have the onboard units needed to use the two ETC lanes at toll stations, meaning that most vehicles are forced to use the other four to seven lanes at the toll stations.

"With heavy traffic on holidays, a freeway could just turn into a big parking lot," he said.

The foundation is setting up a public forum at its Web site (www.consumers.org.tw) to solicit comments from the public to provide a reference for the government, he said.

News reports have said that the ministry is planning to talk with the Far East Electronic Toll Collection Co about possible changes to its contract to operate the electronic toll-collection system on freeways.

The ministry will ask the company to work to increase the ETC-only lanes' user rate to 4 percent at all toll stations within three months or face losing one ETC-dedicated lane in each direction at toll stations.
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