Drivers would be given higher discounts on freeway toll fees ahead of the Tomb Sweeping Festival next month in a bid to ease traffic congestion during the long four-day weekend that begins on April 4, the National Freeway Bureau said yesterday.
Motorists traveling on March 30 and March 31 would be charged NT$0.63 per kilometer, 30 percent less than the typical holiday rate of NT$0.9 per kilometer, bureau official Cho Ming-chun (卓明君) said.
It is the biggest “early bird” discount ever, Cho said.
The bureau hopes the discount would encourage people to pay their respects to their ancestors and tend to family tombs a week before the festival, after a massive traffic jam clogged southbound lanes on the first day of the festival last year.
Motorists that day traveled a total of 74.1 million vehicle-kilometers — a traffic flow measure that multiplies the number of vehicles on the freeway by the average length of their trips — bringing traffic to a halt and leading to a public outcry, Cho said.
One-way volume during the festival is typically 55 million vehicle-kilometers, he said.
The bureau has traditionally given a 20 percent discount on the standard toll of NT$1.2 per kilometer during the weekend before the festival, except 2017 when it offered a 30 percent discount.
However, it decided to see whether a higher discount would encourage people to change their schedules, which would make holiday travel smoother, especially for freeway sections near Hsinchu County, the bureau said.
The usual holiday rate of NT$0.9 per kilometer would apply during the festival weekend from April 4 to April 7, it added.
Freeways would be toll-free between midnight and 5am from April 4 to April 6 and between midnight and 10am on April 7, the bureau said.
People who want to see real-time traffic conditions before starting their trips can check 1968.freeway.gov.tw/?lang=en or download a mobile application at 1968.freeway.gov.tw/app, it said.
The Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp also announced measures to accommodate heavy passenger demand for long weekend, adding that 205 extra services would be available for booking as of midnight tomorrow.
The additional 101 southbound trains and 104 northbound trains would run from April 3 to April 8, bringing the total number of trips to 1,045 during the period, it said.
An extra southbound train would be added on March 23 and March 30, departing at 7:50am from Nangang Station, for those who want to pay respect to their ancestors early, the company said.
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