National Freeway Bureau statistics showed that the travel time between Taipei and Kaohsiung has been shortened by an average of 10 minutes after the nation launched the “pay as you go” freeway toll fee collection system last year.
National Freeway Bureau Deputy Director-General Wu Mu-fu (吳木富) said that the project has also helped conserve energy and mitigate the increase of carbon dioxide levels, saving about NT$2.4 billion (US$76.8 million).
However, the bureau spent NT$4 billion launching the project by removing nearly all the toll booths on the freeways and improving road surfaces in the sections from which the booths were removed.
Nearly 950 former freeway toll collectors were laid off in the process, with some still staging protests to demand fair compensation from the government.
In response to the seemingly limited impact of the new policy, Wu said that the bureau calculated the travel time saved by comparing the travel time under the current system with when cars needed to drive through the toll collection lanes.
“If you compare the travel time now with that of driving through the lanes in which drivers had to pay cash or present prepaid tickets to toll fee collectors, the travel time saved is about 20 to 30 minutes,” Wu said, adding that 10 minutes was the average time people could save when they travel between Taipei and Kaohsiung.
Wu also said that the duration of the travel time could be reduced by more than 20 minutes if drivers traveled during off-peak hours.
Meanwhile, the bureau found that about 41 percent of weekday traffic on freeways is people traveling less than 20km per day.
The percentage dropped to 35.4 percent on weekends and to 33.8 percent on long weekends or the Lunar New Year holiday.
The overall traffic volume on the freeways has increased by 3 percent after the bureau began enforcing the distance-based toll fee collection policy, with revenue topping NT$21.2 billion, which is about NT$800 million less than previously collected through toll booths, the bureau said.
The amount surpassed the estimated revenue of NT$18 billion to NT$19 billion.
Under the current system, each vehicle may travel 20km per day toll-free during a “regular” day or non-holiday day.
During holidays, the toll-free distance is not applicable and vehicles are charged in relation to the distance they travel.
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