The National Freeway Bureau yesterday implemented the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) policy — which requires at least three people per vehicle — along several sections on the national freeways as more holiday travelers began heading back to northern Taiwan.
The six-day Lunar New Year holiday ends tomorrow, and as is usually the case, people who headed south for the holiday often try to beat the crowds headed north by leaving early.
The HOV policy for northbound cars on the Sun Yat-sen Freeway (Freeway No. 1) and the Formosa Freeway (Freeway No. 3) was put into in effect yesterday between 9am and 2pm — and will be again today — while the policy was put into place for the Chiang Wei-shui Freeway (Freeway No. 5) between 3pm and 8pm yesterday, which would be continued today and tomorrow, the bureau said.
Photo: Chang Yi-chen, Taipei Times
Starting at 9am yesterday, congestion was reported on the northbound lanes of Freeways No. 1 and No. 3, as well as the northbound freeway entrance of the Hsuehshan Tunnel on Freeway No. 5, which connects Taipei and Yilan County, the bureau said.
About 3pm, the most congested routes on Freeways No.1 and No. 3 were along sections near Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung as well as Hsinchu, Miaoli, Changhua and Yunlin counties, where the speed of cars was kept between 20kph and 39kph, the bureau’s data showed.
Traffic on Freeway No. 5 was slower in the section between Yilan’s Toucheng Township (頭城) and New Taipei City’s Pinglin District (坪林) yesterday afternoon.
As Freeway No. 5 is expected to be packed today until 1am tomorrow as people along the east coast head north, the bureau said travelers should leave earlier to avoid traffic jams.
In other news, a new cold front is forecast to hit the nation today, the Central Weather Bureau said.
Today could be partly cloudy, with temperatures ranging between 25?C and 29?C, forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said.
Seasonal winds are expected to strengthen tomorrow, bringing a cold air mass and possibly rain that could affect the northern and eastern parts of the nation, he said.
The cold front will likely continue through Friday, with temperatures dropping to a low of 12?C overnight on Thursday in central and northern Taiwan, the forecaster said.
Additional reporting by Chang Yi-chen and CNA
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from