Is ETC Required?
1 Answers
ETC installation is necessary. According to the State Council's regulations, starting from 2020, vehicles without ETC will not enjoy toll discounts. In the future, only one manual lane will be retained at highway toll stations, and tolls can only be paid through manual lanes. Additionally, newly installed ETC devices cannot be used on highways immediately; they must be activated first. During free holiday periods, ETC users can still use highways, and no fees will be deducted when passing through ETC lanes. ETC Billing Principle: Highways will have one or more ETC lanes. Through dedicated short-range microwave communication between the vehicle's windshield-mounted electronic tag and the microwave antenna in the ETC lane, and using computer networking technology for backend settlement with banks, vehicles can pay tolls without stopping at toll stations. All of this operates on the principle of "pass first, deduct later." Benefits of Installing ETC: Time-saving: Eliminates the hassle of waiting in queues. Green and eco-friendly: Reduces noise and exhaust emissions by eliminating stops at toll stations, lowering pollution. Reduces wear and tear: Saves costs by decreasing the frequency of vehicle starts and stops, reducing wear and fuel consumption. Improves efficiency: ETC lanes can theoretically increase traffic flow efficiency by 2-3 times, making traditional ETC faster, more advanced, and more high-tech. Compared to license plate payment, ETC technology is more mature and advantageous. More policy support: The State Council's "13th Five-Year Plan for the Development of a Modern Comprehensive Transportation System" explicitly states, "By 2020, key city clusters will achieve interoperability of transportation cards, and the proportion of vehicles using ETC will significantly increase." It also sets a target of "50% ETC usage rate for road passenger vehicles by 2020" in the main indicators of the "13th Five-Year" comprehensive transportation development plan. More future possibilities: In addition to continuously improving the convenience of ETC installation and usage rates for passenger vehicles, future efforts will include promoting ETC for trucks and exploring deeper integration of ETC systems with vehicle-to-vehicle communication, vehicle-to-infrastructure coordination, and other smart transportation developments. This will provide comprehensive travel services for vehicle owners, meaning more application scenarios will support ETC usage.
