About 3 million vehicles hit the roads yesterday on the second day of the Lunar New Year, the day when married daughters return to their parents’ home (Hui Niang Jia), packing several sections of the nation’s highways, the National Freeway Bureau said.
“We estimate that the traffic volume will fall between 2.7 million and 2.9 million vehicle-times,” said Lu Wen-yu (呂文玉), the bureau’s Traffic Management Division vice director, adding that if so, the amount would be 500,000 more than the first day of the Lunar New Year.
The bureau said the first wave of vehicles had been expected to appear from 8am to 12am as some families headed to the homes of wives’ parents, and others headed for amusement parks or recreation areas.
Photo: Luo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Despite the cold, rainy weather in northern Taiwan, vehicles began packing the southbound lanes on the freeways at about 8am, causing average traffic speed to drop to about 30kph at some sections. Traffic congestion between Taoyuan’s Jhongli (中壢) and Neili (內壢), reduced the average speed to as slow as 15kph for a period of time.
Traffic monitoring in the morning showed more cars were heading south, and the congested sections were shortened around midday, the bureau said at noon.
Bureau officials said another wave of cars going north was expected to begin showing up after 3pm.
“We estimate that there will be some waves of cars going north in the afternoon, with sections from Siluo (西螺) to Yuanlin (員林) on Freeway No. 1, from Jhongtou (中投) to Caotun (草屯) on Freeway No. 3, and from Toucheng (頭城) to Pinglin (坪林) Freeway No. 5 being sections that may move slowly,” Traffic Management Division director Hsu Fu-Shen (徐福聲) said.
To ease traffic during the Lunar New Year period, the bureau has implemented toll-free hours between 12am and 7am, and allowed usage of the hard shoulder at more than 20 sections of the freeways.
The bureau estimated that the traffic volume today may even exceed yesterday’s numbers and suggested motorists make use of the toll-free period to get on the freeways before 7am, take alternative roads, or check the online traffic control information before hitting the road, to prevent getting stuck in traffic jams.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS