Toll Stations: The Vanishing Three-Second Pause on the National Highway

"In that three-foot-square booth, what we received was not just a ticket, but the souls of countless travelers in a hurry. When the window rolled down, what poured in was the winter cold wind, the summer heat, and that gentle 'thank you for your hard work'."

30-Second Overview: Taiwan's national highway toll stations, from their activation in 1974 to their removal in 2013, represent the most tangible scene of Taiwan's transition from economic takeoff to digital transformation. This three-foot-square booth was once the fiscal fortress supporting national construction and the "home" where 947 toll collectors dedicated their youth. This article uses a prose style to trace the history from its birth amidst the oil crisis, through the fairness revolution sparked by electronic tolling, to the labor rights protest history that still aches faintly today.

It was the gentlest yet most cruel gaze in Taiwan's highway history. As wheels slowly rolled into the toll lane, the roar of the engine echoed between the booth's guardrails into a dull rhythm. The driver rolled down the window, and what rushed in was a heatwave mixed with the smell of scorched asphalt and diesel exhaust. The toll collector reached out, their fingertips lightly touching the return ticket handed over by the driver. That one-second pause was the only human touch on the national highway. Today, we pass through cold gantries at 100 km/h; that "hand-to-hand" warmth has dissipated completely into the dust of the rearview mirror along with the demolished booths.

Before the Origin: Road Money by the Toushui Creek and Railway Wonders

Before the Tashan Toll Station became the "Number One Station," Taiwan's tolling history had already quietly unfolded by the Toushui Creek. In 1953, the Xiluo Bridge, spanning Yunlin and Changhua counties and once the largest bridge in East Asia, opened for traffic ¹. To recover bridge construction costs, the government established the Toushui Creek Toll Station at the bridgehead, which is the true ancestor of Taiwan's highway tolling ².

It was an era where even crossing a bridge required "road money." More interestingly, in those years when highway bridges were not yet widespread, Taiwan witnessed the wonder of railways also charging fees. On the streams between Hualien and Taitung, Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) railway bridges were often the only passage. At that time, the TRA not only carried people but also "carried roads"—during gaps in train traffic, highway vehicles could drive onto the railway bridges, with TRA staff collecting tolls from "bridge watch houses" on both sides ³. This "agency collection" system of shared railway-highway use unexpectedly made the TRA an early toll station manager, ending only when highway bridges were successively completed in the 1970s ⁴.

1974: The Oil Crisis and the Fiscal Fortress of "Roads Pay for Roads"

In the 1970s, Taiwan was in the midst of the frenzy of the "Ten Major Construction Projects." On July 30, 1974, Taiwan's first national highway toll station—the Tashan Toll Station—officially opened ⁵.

The background at the time was extremely special: the world was experiencing the first oil crisis, with soaring crude oil prices and huge government fiscal pressure. To support massive construction funds, the government adopted the "roads pay for roads" policy, planning the national highway as a toll road ⁶. The fare for small vehicles was only 15 yuan at the time, symbolizing the rise of the "middle class" and the "private car dream" in an era when average monthly salaries were only in the thousands ⁷.

At that time, the toll station was the only rhythm on the national highway. Drivers had to reduce their speed from 100 km/h to zero, roll down the window, and complete their first monetary contract with the country amidst the idling sound of the engine.

📝 Curator's Note: The birth of the toll station was Taiwan exchanging "users' stopping pauses" for "accelerated national construction."

Booth Daily Life: Late-Night Broadcasts and Solitude in Exhaust Fumes

At the peak of the 23 toll stations across Taiwan, toll collectors implemented a strict three-shift system, operating 24 hours a day without interruption ⁸. For toll collectors on night shifts, what accompanied them was often the rustling radio in the booth. The music from radio stations and national highway traffic reports wove together a unique sense of solitude.

• Memory of Objects: That yellowed "return ticket book with 100 sheets," with slightly rough paper and embossed printing touches on the edges for anti-counterfeiting ⁹. The ticket surface faintly showed plum blossom watermarks and fluorescent anti-counterfeiting threads, flashing faintly under UV lights. For freight drivers at the time, return tickets were even a form of "alternative currency," often used to offset meal costs or traded privately at rest areas ¹⁰.
• Physical Cost: In summer, the booth was like a furnace. Even with small electric fans, the stifling heat could not be blown away. To avoid delaying traffic flow, toll collectors often had to master the特技 (special skill) of "drinking water in five seconds, eating in three seconds." Over time, chronic cystitis and respiratory diseases became their untearable occupational labels ¹¹.
• Mysterious Underground Tunnel: For safety, toll collectors had to walk through a "mysterious underground tunnel" spanning under the national highway to reach the office. This was a narrow passage about 100 meters long, only wide enough for two people to pass sideways, hiding the tired faces and conversations of toll collectors during shift changes ¹².

After the 1978 Zhengcheng Bridge Toll Station scandal, the system shifted to "all-female" ¹³. These female toll collectors, in the small space, observed the various faces of society: travelers who dropped money and accelerated away, the warm palms touched inadvertently when handing over tickets, and those figures who still held their posts in the pouring rain.

Technological Evolution: From Return Tickets to the Fairness Revolution

In 1985, the "Return Ticket Dedicated Lane" was fully implemented, and the "No Change Lane" was launched, reducing the station passage time to 3.7 seconds ¹⁴. However, this "per-trip charging" behind it hid profound unfairness. Data showed that about 65% of short-distance road users (mostly metropolitan trips) did not need to pay fees because they did not pass through the toll station, with all maintenance costs borne by the 35% of medium-to-long-distance road users ¹⁵.

This also gave rise to early "fee evasion phenomena." The famous "local people's fee evasion secret path" at the Dajia Toll Station was once a secret known tacitly by local drivers ¹⁶. This unfairness and bottleneck of efficiency prompted Taiwan to promote ETC electronic tolling.

Taiwan's ETC transition is highly representative internationally. Compared to Japan's current ETC, which still requires vehicles to slow down when passing through gates, Taiwan's "multi-lane free-flow" system allows vehicles to pass through gantries at high speed, praised by Japanese media as a "leading national nervous system" ¹⁷.

The Abandoned Contract Generation: Sun Hsiu-luan and the Self-Help Association

When the national highway became fully automated, 947 toll collectors lost their "home" overnight. This group was mostly female and middle-aged, with an average service tenure of over ten years, yet faced zeroed-out tenure and difficulties in career transition due to their "one-year contract" status ¹⁸.

Self-Help Association President Sun Hsiu-luan led members in a three-year-long protest:

• 2013-2016: From petitioning at the Presidential Office to the "six steps, one knee" ascetic march. Under the scorching sun and in the rain, they measured the land they had once guarded with their knees ¹⁹.
• Final Agreement: After the new government took office in 2016, a project compensation agreement was reached. But for many toll collectors, the scar of being "used and discarded" by the state could no longer be erased by money ²⁰.

This was a confrontation between "efficiency" and "dignity." In the process of the nation moving towards modernization, this group became the背影 (silhouettes) forgotten in the rearview mirror.

Concretization of Memory: The Last Minute of Lights Out

On December 29, 2013, at midnight 24:00, 132 toll collectors across Taiwan put away their last return ticket. Chen Jingru of the Dajia Toll Station recalled that at that moment, she slowly pressed the light switch in the booth, and the surroundings fell into darkness, with only the flashing red light of the eTag gantry in the distance ²¹.

Today, three booths are preserved:

• Tashan Toll Station: Has a "Museum Exhibition Room," displaying yellowed return tickets and uniforms ²².
• Dajia Toll Station: Its "Mazu Temple" style exterior is fully preserved, symbolizing the integration of local culture ²³.
• Tianliao Toll Station: Retains part of the station structure, allowing future generations to mourn this national highway history ²⁴.

📝 Curator's Note: In an efficiency-first era, we pass through感应 (induction) gantries in just one second; but that vanishing three-second pause was once our most concrete connection to this land.

Timeline: Fifty Years of National Highway Tolling

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