60% of Taiwanese oppose allowing heavy motorcycles on freeways: Bureau

Taipei, July 2 (CNA) A survey has found that 60 percent of Taiwanese remain opposed to allowing heavy motorcycles (250cc and over) on national freeways, according to the Freeway Bureau on Wednesday.

The main concerns cited in the survey were the perceptions that motorcyclists do not follow traffic rules, overtake at will, and weave between vehicles, posing safety risks and making car drivers feel anxious, the bureau said.

The Freeway Bureau said its March survey, the 12th on whether the ban on heavy motorcycles on national freeways should be lifted, showed results consistent with previous findings.

Among respondents who supported conditional access, many favored restricting motorcycle use to weekdays, the bureau said.

More than 80 percent of supporters said access should be limited to designated freeway sections, with the strongest support for opening National Freeway No. 6, also known as the Central East-West Freeway, which runs between Taichung's Wufeng District and Puli Township in Nantou County.

The bureau said it would only move forward with trial openings if there was broad agreement in society and backing from local governments.

The survey, conducted from March 11-21, gathered responses from 2,292 landline and mobile phone users. It has a 95 percent confidence level with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points, according to the bureau.

Despite a 2011 amendment to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act that conditionally permits heavy motorcycles on freeways, including proposals to test such access on National Freeway No. 6, National Freeway No. 8, and parts of National Freeway No. 3, no such trials have yet taken place.

This has prompted heavy motorcycle groups to occasionally hold events advocating for road rights.