To ease traffic congestion during the Lunar New Year holiday, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications has announced freeway controls and toll-free periods.
From tomorrow until Feb. 5, tolls will not be collected between 12am and 6am.
The toll-free period extends until 3pm for tomorrow, next Wednesday and the following Saturday, while this Saturday the toll-free period extends until 12pm.
Traffic controls will be apply at all entry points on freeways 1 (Sun Yat-sen Freeway), 2 (CKS airport link) and 3 (Formosa Freeway), while partial controls will apply on entry points on Freeway 5 in Ilan and Taipei counties.
Ministry officials reminded the public that electronic toll collection will not operate during the holiday period.
From Tuesday until the following Thursday, northbound entry points on the Sun Yat-sen Freeway will be closed at Tainan, Shuishang (水上) in Chiayi County, Siluo (西螺) in Yunlin County and Jhongli (中壢) in Taoyuan County, while north and southbound entry points will be closed at the Mingjian (
Officials said southbound traffic will be heaviest this Saturday, especially around cities and scenic areas, while for northbound traffic the heaviest days are predicted to be next Wednesday and the following Saturday.
This Saturday, traffic is expected to be especially heavy on the Sun Yat-sen Freeway between 7am and 3pm southbound and northbound between Taoyuan and Jhongli, and southbound between Kaohsiung and Tainan.
On the Formosa Freeway, southbound traffic is expected to be heavy between Ankeng (安坑) and Tucheng (土城), and between Yingge (鶯歌) and Longtan (龍潭), while southbound and northbound traffic is expected to be heavy between Sijhih (汐止) and Sindian (
Officials also expect traffic to be heavy on already opened sections of Freeway 5 between Nangang (南港) and Shihding (石碇) in Taipei County and between Toucheng (頭城) and Suao (蘇澳) in Ilan County.
However, the number of vehicles traveling from Shihding to Pinglin (坪林) will be limited and motorists may be forced to exit at Shihding.
Officials suggested that drivers try routes other than freeways to save time.
They said motorists heading to Changhua, Yunlin and Chiayi counties or points south use the Formosa Freeway as well as highways 1, 3 and 15 (the west coast highway), expressways 61 (the west coast expressway) and 74 (Taichung link), as well as east-west expressways 76 (Changhua), 78 (Yunlin) and 82 (Chiayi).
Between 7am and 12pm this Saturday, only cars with four or more occupants will be allowed access at selected freeway interchanges.
These include southbound entry points on the Sun Yat-sen Freeway between Neihu (
From 9am to 3pm next Wednesday and the following Saturday, only cars with at least four occupants may use northbound entry points on the Sun Yat-sen Freeway between Kaohsiung and Neili (內壢) in Taoyuan County, or northbound entry points on the Formosa Freeway between Jiouru (九如) in Pingtung County and Dasi (
Maps showing alternative routes can be obtained free of charge at freeway service stations and police traffic radio stations.
For more information, visit www.freeway.gov.tw or call 0800-008-456.
Nationwide traffic information is also broadcast on FM104.9.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift