Drivers reject toll-free travel(2)

The toll gate barriers will stay up during the free days to smooth the traffic, he said.

During the October holiday, highways still asked drivers to take a toll card until October 4, exacerbating traffic jams, until the government ordered the operators to keep the barriers lifted at all times, the Beijing News reported on October 4, 2012.

Zhang also said that despite the terrible highway congestion in October 2012, they do not yet know if conditions will be the same this time.

"We'll have to wait for another year to ascertain how much the free highways have to do with traffic jams during the different festivals," he said.

In terms of the reason for setting the time frame from February 9 to 15, Zhang said that it is the policy issued by the State Council and they are just following the rules.

Meng Bin, professor of urban planning at Beijing Union University, said that the purpose of this policy is to bring convenience to the public but it might not work well because it has not been very well thought out.

"The starting day on the 9th is already New Year's Eve, which traditionally is the time when families want to be together, while they have to take this time on the journey instead," he said.

"The policy should be enacted more flexibly by adjusting the start date before the 9th so that people can be with their families on the eve," he noted.

During the October holiday in 2012, the amount of vehicles on highways exceeded 1.5 times higher than during previous October holidays.

He Jianzhong, media officer of the Ministry of Transport, said that the passenger flow volume in the coming Spring Festival would not be much lower nor higher than this level because of the opening of the high-speed train lines to Guangzhou and Shanghai, the Beijing News reported Thursday.