If the government wants to increase the tolls motorists must pay to use freeways during peak hours, it would need to amend regulations, the National Freeway Bureau said yesterday.
Tuesday was the last day of the four-day long weekend to mark Children’s Day and Tomb Sweeping Day.
The bureau said it began to see delays on northbound freeways on Monday, as drivers left early to try and avoid the congestion typical of the last day of public holidays.
The worst-affected roads were the Chiang Wei-Shui Freeway (Freeway No. 5), Formosa Freeway (Freeway No. 3) and several sections of the Sun Yat-Sen Freeway (Freeway No. 1).
On Monday, some northbound travelers on Freeway No. 5 were stuck in traffic all day, while some cars on Freeway No. 5 were stuck in traffic from Monday afternoon until 2am on Tuesday morning.
To ease traffic on freeways, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) proposed that the government increase the difference in freeway toll fee rates for peak hours and off-peak hours.
The tolls for using freeways during peak hours should be increased, while the fees for using the roads during off-peak hours should be decreased or even waived, he said.
The bottom line should be that the government’s revenue from freeway tolls does not decrease, he said.
In a bid to ease congestion, if drivers used freeways the weekend before the four-day-long holiday the bureau gave them a 30 percent discount on tolls, while those traveling over the holiday weekend received a 25 percent reduction on tolls if they traveled on Freeway No. 3 instead of Freeway No. 1.
Cheng criticized the measures, saying that if drivers took the bureau’s advice and traveled during the previous weekend they would only save NT$36 each way, while if drivers opted for Freeway No. 3 instead of Freeway No. 5 over the holiday weekend they would only save NT$14.
The incentives were too insignificant to affect behavior, he said.
The regulations stipulate that freeway authorities can charge drivers a maximum of twice the base rate, bureau Deputy Director-General Wu Mu-fu (吳木富) said, adding that drivers of small cars are charged NT$1.2 per kilometer traveled and can be charged no more than NT$2.4 per kilometer driven.
The bureau needs to amend the regulation if it wants to charge more, Wu said.
Wu supported Cheng’s proposal to increase the differences between tolls for peak hours and off-peak hours, adding that he does not think giving discounts on toll fees would help much.
“Our rate is already cheap. Even if you can give people a discount that drops the rate to NT$0.2 per kilometer, drivers would not feel the pinch. However, people would certainly feel differently about paying NT$1.2 per kilometer as opposed to NT$10 per kilometer,” he said.
The nation has implemented an electronic toll-collection system on all freeways and any change in rates could be implemented quickly via a change in its settings, Wu said.
The government should also inform people about alternative routes in different regions, so that people can bypass freeways if they do not want to pay higher tolls during peak hours, he said.
“The fundamental question is whether the public and politicians can reach a consensus over the proposals,” he said.
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