On the last day before the nine-day Lunar New Year vacation started, many families rushed yesterday to hit the roads early to visit their families, causing traffic congestion as early as 6pm.
The National Freeway Bureau said that approximately 1.8 million vehicles, or a 10 percent increase from typical Friday traffic, hit the freeway from about 3pm yesterday afternoon. To alleviate congestion, the bureau announced that no highway tolls would be collected on northbound and southbound freeway lanes from 12am to 7am from today until Feb. 21.
Traffic thickened from noon near Taipei Railway Station, including on Chengde Road and Civic Boulevard, as workers got off work early ahead of the holidays.
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
National Freeway No. 5 is expected to have mild traffic today, but could start to experience heavy traffic congestion tomorrow, as families travel between Taipei and Yilan.
Officials estimated that southbound traffic would be heaviest today, while freeways and local roads would start seeing traffic from vacationing families on Tuesday. Northbound traffic is expected to peak between Wednesday and Friday.
High occupancy vehicle controls will be implemented from 7am to 12pm today on southbound lanes of National Freeway No. 1 between Neihu (內湖) and Changhua and on National Freeway No. 3 between Muzha (木柵) and Siangshan (香山), in Hsinchu County.
On Wednesday and Thursday, the high occupancy vehicle control will be implemented from 9am to 3pm on northbound lanes of National Freeway No. 1 between Kaohsiung and Neili (內壢) and between Jiouru (九如) and Dashi (大溪) on National Freeway No. 3.
During this time, only vehicles carrying at least three passengers, including the driver and children, will be permitted on the freeway.
To accommodate travelers, the Taiwan Railways Administration has scheduled 600 extra trains during the holidays. The Taiwan High Speed Rail followed suit with 341 extra trains. Despite the 1.8 million extra seats available, tickets for trains running yesterday and today have long been sold out. Travelers utilizing public transportation who could not get a train ticket are encouraged to take buses.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) on Thursday said the ministry has asked the Ministry of National Defense (MND) for assistance if inclement weather stalls air traffic between Taiwan proper and outlying islands during the Lunar New Year holidays.
The weather changed drastically on Thursday night, with temperatures nosediving. The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) forecast strong cold fronts from the north would bring cold, wet weather to Taiwan during the Lunar New Year holiday.
“Before we started organizing the plan to facilitate the transportation of homebound travelers, we were already informed by the CWB that there might be an issue with fog during the Lunar New Year holiday,” Mao said. “So aside from plan A, which was to increase additional flights to the outlying islands, we also have a plan B to increase sea line services.”
Mao said in case plan A and plan B fail, they would ask the MND to offer military vessels to help carry homebound travelers.
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), who visited Songshan Airport and other transportation hubs yesterday to inspect the traffic situation, applauded the MOTC for mapping out different contingency plans.
“That’s the spirit,” he said. “Serve the people sincerely, deal with people’s problems efficiently and show empathy for the people.”
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHIH HSIU-CHUAN, SHELLEY SHAN AND CNA
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