The Consumers’ Foundation yesterday accused transportation authorities of exacerbating traffic delays for drivers without Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) on-board units after adding a third electronic toll booth on National Freeway No. 1.
Drivers who have installed ETC units in their vehicles can pay their tolls by driving through the ETC lane rather than stopping briefly to hand over toll tickets or cash to toll collectors at manual toll collection lanes.
However, the watchdog said it had recently received reports from drivers who complained that traffic jams had become substantially worse since a third ETC lane for automobiles was installed at the freeway’s Taishan (泰山) toll station.
PHOTO: YAO CHIEH-HSIU, TAIPEI TIMES
In a survey last month of 264 people who had not installed the on-board units, the foundation asked drivers whether they had been stuck in traffic at the manual toll lanes since the addition of the third ETC lane.
Four out of five said they had.
The survey also showed that traffic jams around the toll booths were occurring not only during peak traffic hours, but also at off-peak times such as 3pm on weekdays.
Foundation chairman Hsieh Tien-jen (謝天仁) said the addition of the ETC lane by the National Freeway Bureau indirectly forced drivers to install the on-board units.
In May the foundation had warned this would happen, saying that as it takes an average of 3.4 seconds to collect a toll fee from each vehicle, it would take more than an hour for vehicles to pass through the booths, causing heavy traffic congestion during peak hours.
Only 15 percent of vehicles have on-board units, meaning congestion had increased because of the relative scarcity of booths for vehicles lacking them.
The foundation said it would report the matter to the Control Yuan for investigation.
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