The government is not considering charging drivers for accessing National Freeway No. 2 between Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and New Taipei City’s Yingge District (鶯歌), despite a nearly 10 percent rise in traffic volume on the roadway, the National Freeway Bureau said on Monday.
Although freeway tolls are generally charged based on distance traveled, only drivers traveling north to south, on freeways with odd numbers, are required to pay, while there is no fee on even-numbered freeways, going west to east. On weekdays, drivers are entitled to 20km of toll-free travel per day.
Toll fees are waived for drivers of west-east freeways as they are mostly in areas that lack public transportation services, the bureau said, adding that a reassessment of those rates would be more appropriate once there are more public transportation options in those areas.
Photo: Wu Liang-yi, Taipei Times
“We need to consider how people would feel about a fee change. People might have different thoughts if tolls are only charged on a specific west-east freeway,” the bureau said.
The Freeway Construction Fund — funded through toll fees and fuel surcharges and used for building and maintaining freeways — is by the end of this year expected to record its largest annual cash shortfall since 2019, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report.
To cover the shortfall, the bureau could issue Category-II government bonds or apply for loans.
The Charges and Fees Act (規費法) stipulates that toll fee rates are subject to review at least every three years. The last review was in 2023, meaning the bureau could review the rates at the end of this year.
Of the five west-east freeways, National Freeway No. 2 has the highest traffic volume. From 2021 to 2023, volume on the freeway increased from 835 million vehicle-kilometers to 918 million vehicle-kilometers, bureau data showed.
A vehicle-kilometer is a measure of traffic flow representing the movement of a vehicle over 1km.
Although the traffic volume was slightly down in 2024, at 909 million vehicle-kilometers, it rose last year to 912 million vehicle-kilometers.
Traffic volume was up 9.2 percent last year from 2021, the data showed.
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