The Freeway Bureau yesterday disclosed the license plate numbers of the top 10 drivers who had driven below the minimum speed limit of the Hsuehshan Tunnel on the Chiang Wei-shui Freeway (Freeway No. 5) more than a dozen times between January and September.
The minimum speed limit inside the Hsuehshan Tunnel is 70kph. To curb slow driving, the bureau has installed a warning system to detect northbound vehicles driving below 65kph and maintaining a following distance of greater than 100m.
Approximately 7.58 million vehicles drove through the northbound lanes of the Hsuehshan Tunnel from January to September, of which 75,000 were warned by the system for driving too slowly, the bureau said.
Photo: Chiang Chih-hsiung, Taipei Times
Of the 75,000 slow drivers, 15,000 were warned twice or more, it said.
Slower drivers on the northbound lanes were most often warned during the off-peak hours on weekdays, the bureau said, adding that their average driving speed was about 56kph.
On average, they maintained a following distance of 140m, it said.
“We found that the top 10 slow drivers drove below the tunnel’s minimum speed limit more than 14 times. The driver who was ranked No. 1 in this category did so 20 times,” the bureau said, adding that it did not know what prompted the drivers to consistently operate their vehicles under the speed limit.
The warning system is only used to help facilitate the flow of traffic and the data registered on the system are not used for law enforcement personnel to issue fines for contravening traffic regulations, the bureau said.
However, the system does disclose the license plate numbers of slow drivers on the freeway information electronic bulletin board in a bid to speed up the flow of traffic, it said.
Drivers operating their vehicles far below the minimum speed limit when there is no congestion on the freeway could face a fine of NT$3,000 to NT$6,000, the bureau said.
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