The National Freeway Bureau yesterday said it could start implementing differential toll fee rates on all freeways during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday this year to ease traffic congestion.
The bureau’s deputy director-general Wu Mu-fu (吳木富) said that the new scheme would require motorists to pay a higher fee at peak hours on certain sections of freeways during long weekends or major holidays. Motorists would pay less during off-peak hours, he added.
Wu said that the definition of peak and off-peak hours as well as the rates would vary, as each holiday presents its own challenges.
The bureau would make further announcements on the details of the pricing scheme once it has been finalized, he said, adding that it could start enforcing the scheme for the Dragon Boat Festival holiday in June.
Starting in January last year, when the “pay as you go” toll scheme was introduced, each small-car driver is charged NT$1.2 per kilometer, with a daily toll-free distance of 20km.
During long weekends, the toll-free distance is waived, with all small-car drivers charged NT$0.9 per kilometer traveled on freeways.
The bureau has only used the differential rate system during holidays between Hsinchu and Yenchao (燕巢) interchanges on the Formosa Freeway (Freeway No. 3), with motorists given a 20 percent discount on toll fees if they choose the route instead.
According to the bureau, the discount helped reduce traffic volume on the National Sun Yat-sen Freeway (Freeway No. 1) by about 5 percent.
The bureau also tried to use a similar scheme to ease congestion on the Chiang Wei-shui Memorial Freeway (Freeway No. 5) on weekends in August and September last year, with southbound drivers being asked to pay 50 percent more than the current fee if they set off on Saturday morning and northbound drivers charged 50 percent less if they hit the road on Sunday afternoon.
However, the results of the trial run were disappointing, as it only succeeded in diverting 2 to 3 percent of traffic volume from traveling at peak hours.
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