The China Post
Date: September 2, 2016
By: Sun Hsin Hsuan

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The Transportation and Communications Ministry on Thursday announced that national highways tolls would be lifted during late night and early morning hours over the four-day Mid-Autumn holiday.

Deputy Transportation Minister Wang Kwo-tsai (王國才) said Thursday morning that national highways would be free-of-charge from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. from Sept. 14 to Sept. 18.

The announcement represents a departure from a policy implemented over April’s four-day Tomb Sweeping festival, when Transportation Minister Ho Chen Tan insisted on the enforcement of nighttime tolls in an effort to deter drivers from hitting the roads too late, which he associated with road accidents.

The public has become accustomed to the elimination of nighttime highway tolls during holidays since the previous administration, which claimed that lifting highway tolls encourages some people to travel at night, thus alleviating traffic congestion.

By contrast, Ho Chen cited research conducted by the Chinese Institute of Transportation, showing that eliminating nighttime highway tolls does not help alleviate holiday traffic, but instead encourages dangerous late-night driving.     [FULL  STORY]