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Hsuehshan Tunnel traffic rules to stay in place, for now

The government is not considering loosening traffic regulations for the Hsuehshan Tunnel at this point, Minister of Transportation and Communications Kuo Yao-chi (郭瑤琪) reiterated yesterday.

"The Hsuehshan Tunnel is the longest tunnel in Taiwan," Kuo said. "Due to safety concerns, the regulations on the speed limit and safe following distance will remain unchanged."

She said traffic conditions will improve once motorists become accustomed to driving according to the regulations.

Kuo's remarks were made at a legislative hearing hosted by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) to discuss issues that have emerged since the tunnel was officially opened last month.

Lin said that heavy traffic in the tunnel has been reported every weekend since its launch. The tunnel, he said, turned into one gigantic parking lot on those days.

As many motorists have complained that the regulations on the speed limit and the safe following distance are too strict, he said the government should seriously consider whether the restrictions are still reasonable.

Currently, motorists are required to maintain a speed of 70kph when driving through the tunnel. They also must remain at least 50m behind the car in front under the normal traffic flow and 20m when there is heavy traffic.

Wang Jin-yuan (王晉元), an associate professor in the department of transportation engineering and management at National Chiao Tung University, said that as motorists are penalized for exceeding the speed limit in the tunnel by just 1kph, they would tend to drive much slower.

The distance between cautious drivers and those in front of them would then be longer than 50m, which naturally leads to traffic congestion, Wang said.

Wu Mu-fu (吳木富), chief of traffic management division at the Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau, said the regulations should not be amended simply to reduce traffic jams in the tunnel.

Conditions would not necessarily improve even if the speed limit were raised a bit, he said.

"The tunnel was not specifically designed to handle weekend traffic," he said, adding that many activities are held on weekends in Ilan County in the summer.

Wu said the bureau would encourage motorists to take the Coastal Highway or the Taipei-Ilan Highway, and that it was considering setting up traffic lights at some interchanges along the Chiang Wei-Shui Freeway in Ilan County to regulate traffic.
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