Is it necessary to install ETC for cars?
2 Answers
It is necessary to install ETC. According to the regulations of the State Council, vehicles without ETC in 2020 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 channels. Additionally, newly installed ETC devices cannot be used on highways immediately; they need to be activated first. During free holiday periods, ETC users can still use highways, and passing through ETC lanes will not incur charges. ETC Billing Principle: There will be one or more ETC lanes on highways. Through microwave short-range communication between the vehicle's electronic tag installed on the windshield and the microwave antenna in the ETC lane, computer networking technology is used for backend settlement with banks. This allows vehicles to pay tolls without stopping at toll stations, all based 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: Low-carbon solution that reduces noise and exhaust emissions by eliminating stops at toll stations; Reduced wear and tear: Saves costs by minimizing frequent starts and brakes, lowering vehicle wear and fuel consumption; Improved efficiency: ETC lanes can theoretically increase vehicle throughput by 2-3 times, making traditional ETC faster, more advanced, and more efficient. Compared to license plate payment, ETC technology is more mature and advantageous. More policy support: The State Council explicitly stated in the "13th Five-Year Plan for the Development of a Modern Comprehensive Transportation System" that "by 2020, key city clusters should achieve interoperability of transportation smart cards, and the proportion of vehicles equipped with ETC should significantly increase." It also set a target in the "13th Five-Year Plan" for comprehensive transportation development: "By 2020, the ETC usage rate for road passenger vehicles should reach 50%." 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 car owners with comprehensive travel services, meaning more application scenarios will support ETC usage.
I originally installed ETC purely because seeing others zoom through the ETC lanes while stuck at manual toll booths was frustrating! Just imagine, during free holiday periods now, manual lanes can stretch two or three kilometers, while ETC lanes are basically drive-through. Last National Day, I did a real test: driving the same 300 km home, a friend using the manual lane took an hour and a half longer than me. I woke up from a nap in the car, and he was still queuing at the toll station. Plus, some scenic parking lots now accept ETC payments too. For example, during Spring Festival at Mount Emei’s parking lot, weak mobile signals left many struggling to scan QR codes, while I breezed through the ETC channel and got in first. However, if you rarely drive on highways, there’s really no need to get one. My grocery-getter car hasn’t left the city in half a year—it’s just a waste of the installation fee.
