Traffic on the nation's roads is expected to be less heavy today, as many people already started returning home on Friday, an official at the Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau (國道高速公路局) said yesterday.
"The heaviest traffic flow was on Friday and Saturday, when many people drove home to prepare for work or school. Today's traffic will still be busy, but will not be as congested as yesterday," said Chen Ting-tsai (陳庭才), chief of the bureau's Traffic Control Center.
The bureau resumed levying freeway tolls at 4pm yesterday.
According to the bureau, a total of 390,000 vehicles yesterday traveled on the two major north-south freeways between 12am and 6am.
Chen said that traffic is usually at its heaviest on the third day of the Lunar New Year holiday, since many people go back to work the following day. With most schools reopening tomorrow, Chen suggested that people hit the road as early as possible to avoid traffic jams.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (
Many people were reportedly stuck in traffic jams on the northbound national freeway between 10am and 4pm on Friday. The bureau said that the slow flow of traffic was the result of an unexpectedly high number of cars on the road.
In other news, a man sustained head injuries after he reportedly jumped onto the tracks at the Mingde MRT Station in Taipei at around 3pm yesterday. The man was rushed to the Taipei Veteran's General Hospital, where his condition has been described as satisfactory. MRT officials say they still have no idea why he jumped.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique