Lawmakers from the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday questioned plans by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to force motorists to install expensive on-board units (OBU) in preparation for freeway toll stations charging drivers by the number of kilometers they travel in 2012.
National Freeway Bureau -director-general Tseng Dar-jen (曾大仁) said the bureau recently coducted research on the policy change, during which experts simulated different toll-collecting methods and rates, in an effort to determine how the two factors affected traffic volume.
The bureau would have to analyze the results and then engage the public in dialogue on the different rate plans, adding that it had yet to finalize any plan, he said.
PHOTO: CNA
Although lawmakers were scheduled to review the budget for the National Freeway Construction and Management Fund for the next fiscal year, issues surrounding the freeway electronic toll--collecting (ETC) system quickly became the focus of a question-and-answer session at the committee.
At present, national freeway users have to pay toll fees whenever they drive through tollgates. Other than the ETC system, which requires motorists to install OBUs, motorists can pay toll fees by buying prepaid tickets.
However, the bureau is planning to change the toll-collecting method by charging users according to the distance they travel on freeways to ensure the fair use of the roads by all motorists.
The new policy would require that the great majority of users install OBUs in their vehicles.
As part of an attempt to increase installation and usage rates, Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Co (FETC), the contractor entrusted with the task of managing the ETC system, launched a one-year plan this month allowing motorists who have yet to install OBUs to try out the ETC system on a trial basis.
To participate in the trial, motorists must first open an account with FETC and deposit between NT$300 and NT$500. Through an image-recognition system that reads a vehicle’s license plate number, the FETC can deduct the money in the account whenever a vehicle drives through an ETC-only tollgate.
Lawmakers, however, questioned the viability of the bureau’s proposed change in the toll--collecting policy. They were also unhappy with the FETC’s plan to raise usage rates.
“If the FETC can collect toll fees through the image-recognition system, then that means you do not need an OBU to go on the freeways,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Sing-nan (王幸男) said, adding that the ministry should not be allowed to force motorists to install OBUs when the new toll-collecting policy takes effect.
One of the reasons why people don’t buy the OBU system is that it is considered expensive and individuals have to cover the cost of installation themselves.
DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yang Jen-fu (楊仁福) said those buying OBUs before the FETC announced its new plan were buying “a pig in a poke” because for the moment motorists did not need an OBU to drive through ETU-only toll gates.
Tseng, said the FETC’s plan was a short-term experiment not a long-term undertaking. The results of the trial period would be factored into the calculation of monthly OBU usage rate, which will be raised 42 percent by next month, he said.
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
RSS