The National Freeway Bureau last night decided to forgo the policy of having toll-free hours on freeways during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday.
"Statistics show that 34 percent of the fatal traffic accidents recorded in a day happen at the nighttime, and the average number of traffic accidents happened in the nighttime of a long weekend or a major national holiday is about 1.4 times higher than that of a regular weekend. To reduce the risks of driving at night and simplify the freeway traffic, we will no encourage people to drive at night this time,” a statement from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said.
The policy of waiving tolls on freeways between 11pm and 6am on long weekends or major national holidays in a bid to ease congestion has been implemented for more than 10 years.
However, the bureau said it has been asked by Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) to re-evaluate the policy.
The bureau said it had submitted three plans to Hochen: waiving tolls, giving drivers a 50 percent discount on tolls between 11pm and 3am, and charging tolls as usual.
Speaking in an interview with the Chinese-language Apple Daily on Saturday, Hochen said that the ministry would analyze the volume of traffic along the freeways over the past years and determine how many long-distance travelers there are usually during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday.
The ministry took into account the measures it plans to introduce to encourage the use of public transportation to ease traffic congestion, Hochen said.
According to the bureau, traffic volume during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday is estimated to top 2.7 million vehicles at its peak, which is not as high as those recorded on the Lunar New Year and Tomb Sweeping Day holidays.
The provision of toll-free access has had limited effects in easing traffic congestions during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday and sometimes it helped switch less than 10 percent of daytime traffic to the nighttime, the bureau said.
People driving from Taipei to Kaohsiung and back for the Dragon Boat Festival holiday would have to pay a total of NT$608.
Meanwhile, all freeway drivers will be charged with identical rate for the distance they travel. To divert the traffic, drivers choosing to take the Formosa Freeway (National Freeway No.3) rather than the Sun Yat-Sen Freeway (Freeway No.1) would be given a 20-percent discount.
Hochen wrote to Apple Daily editors two years ago, saying that making services free of charge is “the most irresponsible promise that politicians have made to the public.”
He said that the only reason the bureau gives toll-free access during long weekends and major national holidays is to divert daytime traffic to the nighttime and keep drivers from stopping to pay tolls so that traffic does not come to a halt.
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