The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) yesterday defended offering freeway toll discounts to drivers during off-peak hours over the Double Ten National Day long weekend, saying the policy has encouraged some drivers not to travel during peak hours.
The policy, which was part of the ministry’s plan to ease freeway traffic over the holiday, offered a 30 percent discount to drivers who entered freeways on Saturday afternoon and Tuesday morning.
Besides diverting the traffic burden from peak hours to off-peak hours, the policy was also aimed at encouraging drivers to avoid driving during late-night hours, the ministry said.
Entrance to freeways were toll-free at night, but it is a high-risk period for accidents, it added.
However, lawmakers on the legislature’s Transportation Committee said that the policy had failed.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) said that the policy instead created “three big wonders.”
The first was that heavy traffic emerged as early as 6am on the first day of the holiday, with the traffic slowing to 10kph, he said.
The second wonder was that it took drivers two hours to travel from Yilan County’s Jiaosi Township (礁溪) to the Chiang Wei-shui Freeway (Freeway No. 5) interchange 200m away, Lee said.
The third wonder was that the traffic was so heavy in certain places that people had difficulty accessing major scenic areas as well as leaving them, he said.
DPP Legislator Cheng Pao-ching (鄭寶清) said the policy was ineffective because the ministry was too stingy to give away carrots and was too afraid to use sticks.
The government should waive the toll fees for drivers leaving during off-peak hours and double the fees for those driving during peak hours, Cheng said, adding that this would be a test for the ministry to show its determination to improve holiday traffic.
Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Chi Wen-jong (祁文中) said that southbound traffic on the first day of the holiday increased by 5 percent, but southbound traffic during the off-peak hours on the first day rose by 8 percent.
This showed that the policy had diverted 3 percent of peak-hour traffic to off-peak hours, Chi said.
On the last day, the policy helped divert 16 percent of the traffic from peak hours to off-peak hours, he said.
Nevertheless, congestion occurred in some freeway sections due to the overall increase in freeway traffic volume, Chi said.
Chi also said that the ministry is considering implementing a differential toll fee scheme, in which drivers would be charged different rates at different hours.
However, such a scheme would require careful calculation, or it would produce nothing but disaster, he said.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
RSS