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
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