Traffic slows to a snail's pace on first day of the holidays

The first day of the five-day-long holiday weekend yesterday saw traffic jams around the country.

Traffic moving southbound on the highway yesterday morning was reduced to speeds as slow as 20kph.

The Hsuehshan Tunnel was also backed up, partially due to traffic control measures.

At one point yesterday afternoon the lineup of cars going into the tunnel extended back 10km from the entrance.

Peak period

According to officials from the National Freeway Bureau under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, the flow of traffic on the freeways between midnight and 6am yesterday morning reached 395,000 vehicles, three times the normal flow.

This breaks the record for the same period in previous years, and also exceeds the volume of traffic on the first day of the Lunar New Year holidays this year.

For six days starting last night till next Wednesday, freeway tolls will be suspended from 12am to 6am to accommodate people returning home after the Mid-Autumn Festival.

No entry

In order to maintain the smooth flow of traffic, private passenger vehicles were banned from the Qingtiangang (擎天崗) entrance of the Yangmingshan National Park (陽明山國家公園) yesterday and today.

Those who wanted to go moongazing on Yangmingshan should plan on taking public transport, said Kuo Pu-yun (郭步雲), director of the Yanmingshan National Park Administration.