The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday denied a report that it has decided to use the freeway electronic toll collection (ETC) system to crack down on speeding drivers, saying that it is still evaluating the feasibility of implementing such a measure.
The National Freeway Bureau can calculate how fast a vehicle is traveling on a highway by dividing the distance between two ETC gantries by the time it takes for the vehicle to travel between them.
The bureau last year said that it would only target freeway motorists who exceed the maximum speed limit by 60kph, which is considered a serious speeding offense under the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例).
The collected data would only be used to help the highway police identify road sections where speeding is most likely to occur and dispatch more personnel to those sections, the bureau said, adding that the highway police has the ultimate authority in fining speeding motorists.
The Chinese-language China Times yesterday reported that the ministry has decided to the put the data into more effective use by handing them over to the highway police as evidence for penalty.
The ministry proposed the measure after two highway police officers were killed last month after being hit by a truck while they were issuing a fine to another truck driver, the report said.
The measure was being reviewed by the legislature’s Transportation Committee, amid public complaints that it was another government measure to “rob drivers,” it said.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) said he agreed that technology should be used to ensure the safety of highway police officers.
However, Far Eastern Electronic Toll Election Co, the contractor of the ETC system, is a private firm, and controversies would surely arise if it were given the authority to enforce the traffic regulations, Lee said.
The ministry should know that such a measure could spark concerns that the government is invading people’s privacy, he said, adding that the ministry should brief the members of the committee before enforcing the measure.
Road Traffic Safety Commission Executive Secretary Hsieh Ming-hong (謝銘鴻) said that the ministry is still evaluating if such a measure would be a feasible way to crack down on speeding drivers.
The measure is being considered not because the ministry wants to rob people, but to save people’s lives, Hsieh said.
Hsieh said that the ministry is working with the New Taipei City Police Department to use the average travel speed in the Wanli Tunnel (萬里隧道) as a way to gauge if a driver is speeding, which would officially be enforced on July 1.
“The Wanli Tunnel is known for its high accident rate. We have seen from the examples in other nations that the measure is effective in cracking down on speeding drivers. Since the police department has made the announcement, it has noticed that drivers have significantly reduced their speed inside the tunnel,” Hsieh said.
Hsieh said that the same measure would be implemented on roads and highways where traffic accidents frequently happen, including Suhua Highway (part of Highway No. 9) and Yangde Boulevard (仰德大道) on Yangmingshan in Taipei.
The ministry said it is planning to conduct a trial on freeways, where the ETC system’s license plate identification function would be utilized to crack down on traffic violators.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS