On the last day of the Chinese New Year holiday, which is also the last day of free passage on the highways, traffic jams have been reported on highways across the country, with some vehicles forced to shut down overnight. Some activists believe that in developed countries where highways are toll-free, such human-caused congestion would not occur, but the Communist Party refuses to let go of this profitable business.
According to Upstream News, on February 4th, the last day of the holiday, many netizens posted on social media about severe traffic jams on the G50 Shanghai-Chongqing Expressway. Some reported spending nearly 9 hours to travel less than 10 kilometers, being forced to shut down their vehicles and spend the night on the road.
Mr. Gu, a netizen, mentioned that he set out from Shaoyang, Hunan, towards Nanjing but got stuck on the Shanghai-Chongqing Expressway all night, moving only about 1 kilometer. After facing around 400 kilometers to Nanjing, he chose to exit the highway and take the national road.
Another driver, Mr. Yu, entered the Shanghai-Chongqing Expressway from Huanggang, Hubei, heading to Hangzhou, Zhejiang. In the early hours of the 4th, he encountered a major traffic jam about 7 kilometers from the Qichun South Service Area, where the navigation system showed it would take nearly 9 hours to travel 7.9 kilometers. Many drivers chose to turn off their engines and stop. By the afternoon of the same day, still in Anhui, with over 300 kilometers to go to Zhejiang, the navigation system indicated another 9 hours of travel.
At 3:45 am on the 4th, Mr. Liu posted that near the Huangmei Service Area of the Shanghai-Chongqing Expressway in Hubei, there was a severe traffic jam. Many drivers were worried about running out of fuel and chose to shut down their vehicles to rest. Some even fell asleep, only to be woken up by the police, who then saw some of them falling asleep again after 10 minutes.
A netizen from Jiangsu said, “I was stuck in the traffic. I have never experienced such a long jam. I left Xiangyang, Hubei at 11:00 on the 3rd and arrived at Kunshan, Jiangsu at 23:00 on the 4th, spending 36 hours on the road, shut down the engine multiple times to sleep.”
Another netizen from Anhui noted that the most congested section of the Shanghai-Chongqing Expressway was near the construction area close to Zhejiang, where it went from 4 lanes to just 1. The congestion lasted about 1.5 hours, with intermittent stops for at least 50 to 100 kilometers. This was around 6 am on the 5th.
Another netizen from Jiangsu shared, “I also drove from Shaoyang, Hunan to Nanjing for 28 hours. I finally got off the highway before the tolls resumed, so sleepy, so sleepy.”
The toll-free period for the highways during the Chinese New Year was from midnight on January 28th (New Year’s Eve) to 24:00 on February 4th (Lantern Festival), totaling 8 days. Toll collection resumed from midnight on February 5th (Lantern Festival).据陆媒报道，高速免费最后1分钟，有司机急得狂按喇叭，有人晚1分钟付全款，有人2月5日00:01下高速，付了1,500多元过路费。
视频中，有一年轻男子差1秒下高速，一直喊着「免费，免费」，结果眼睁睁看着收费站杆子落下。
还有网友晒出自己后备箱里的储备粮，「哪年都是一样塞。深挖洞，广积粮，准备十足，上高速。」
几乎每年回家过年的人都被堵在路上。在京港澳高速湖南段，有车主表示堵了20小时，还没出省，晚上都熄火休息了。据湖南省高速公路路网运行监测指挥中心消息，截至2月3日17时，湖南高速车流总量已达429.4万车次，湖南高速公路迎来车流量高峰。
一名网友从重庆到哈尔滨，过年来回跑了7,000公里，表示没遇到过这么严重的堵车，最多断断续续地堵1小时左右。
一名广东网友表示，他从河南到东莞开了42个小时。河南境内5个小时，湖北走了6个小时，湖南走了13个小时，进广东开始开到家用了18个小时，坐绿皮车都没有用过这么长时间。
另一名广东网友表示，从广西到广州，400多公里的路，走了16个小时（中途休息一小时），感觉比蜗牛爬还慢，一路上那么堵，就没有见到交警，高速这么堵，难道高速交警不知道？
网友质疑，这么多年了，堵车的源头到底在什么？怎么可能九个小时一动不动。
有网友认为，“堵车每次都堵在服务区前面，堵在进服务区加油、上厕所找吃的休息。”“基本上都是因为龟速行驶导致车祸造成。”“堵这么久，除了车祸之外，大部分原因都是不遵守秩序（占用超车道）造成的。所以，人的素质好不好是关键。”
也有网友表示，相关管理及交通部门应承担不可推卸的主要责任。”高速没有红绿灯，速度120公里，为什么这么堵？交警作为了没有？事故的应急预案制定了没有？有没有联动机制？”“不要让车堵在高速上，那些交警就知道抓违法的罚款，根本不管交通拥堵。”
“既然每年有小几十天的免费高速，为什么不能把这个额度放开给到每个车主，可以当年任意时段使用，超过额度再收费，同时考虑节假日高峰时段大幅上涨高速通行费，鼓励错峰！”
Former mainland farmer Yang Zhanqun told the reporter that the tolls on highways in China have already increased. Many people who work in cities and return to rural areas for the New Year, for instance, have to rush back to work on the 8th day of the Lunar New Year to avoid paying the toll. Especially now when the Chinese economy is not doing well, these drivers, mostly migrant workers, are very concerned about this toll fee.
Yang Zhanqun himself experienced traffic jams and managed to return to his work city before the 8th day. “The massive traffic jam was so bad that the cars couldn’t move at all.” Currently in Germany, Yang Zhanqun stated that Chinese highways cannot be compared to those in Germany. “In Germany, almost 99% of highways are toll-free and even have no speed limits. In China, over 90% of highways are toll roads. In all my years in China, I haven’t seen any toll-free highways.”
He explained that even in his hometown in northeast China, the highway was built with bank loans. Experts said that after 15 years, the construction cost of the highway should be recovered, turning the highway into a toll-free road, but after 25 years, it is still collecting tolls. “Could the Communist Party let go of such a profitable business project like toll collection?”
When interviewed by the Epoch Times, activist Ms. Guo Song pointed out that in recent years, to stimulate the economy, the Chinese Communist Party has made major highways toll-free during some major holidays, leading people to take highways for free during holidays, causing massive traffic jams. With distances of ten or twenty kilometers taking eight to nine hours to traverse, it is not worth it to use the highways during the holidays.
When people choose not to use the highways, they opt for the secondary roads. However, many avoid choosing the national and provincial roads because each is filled with countless surveillance cameras set up by the local governments. Without knowing when, if you are caught on camera, you may end up paying hefty fines.
Ms. Guo Song expressed her distress, saying that the Chinese people live in difficult circumstances. Upon traveling to Europe and then later to New Zealand two years ago, she noticed that in developed countries, there are no border lines separating countries and no toll booths in the middle of the road. “I traveled across several countries by bus; I didn’t see police cars or toll booths.”
Upon arriving in New Zealand, she found the highways to be quite ordinary, operating on a free-of-charge system. Only in a particular instance where she had to pass through a newly built tunnel did she need to pay for road usage. “In New Zealand, nearly all highways are toll-free.”