Motorists on the Wugu-Yangmei Overpass (五股楊梅高架橋) are to be able to drive slightly faster on the uphill section of the high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane as the National Freeway Bureau said it plans to allow drivers to switch lanes when they are behind slower-moving vehicles.
Constructed alongside the Sun Yat-Sen Freeway (Freeway No. 1), the 39km overpass has helped ease the congestion between Taipei and Taoyuan since it was launched last year.
The overpass is also equipped with the nation’s only HOV lane on a freeway, which is the inner lane in the section between Taishan (泰山) and Jhungli (中壢).
Photo: Hsieh Wu-hsiung, Taipei Times
The traffic policy stipulates that large passenger vehicles or small cars carrying at least three people can use the HOV lane.
However, recently, the bureau has been receiving complaints from drivers about not being able to change lanes when driving on the uphill section of the HOV lane.
They complained that large passenger vehicles tend to move slower on the uphill sections, and driving behind a large passenger vehicle often slows them down considerably.
After receiving these complaints, the bureau said it had asked the engineers of the National Expressway Engineering Bureau to jointly conduct an on-site evaluation and decided that drivers should be allowed to change lanes on the uphill section.
However, to lift the ban on changing lanes on the uphill section, the National Freeway Bureau said that it would have to change the road surface markings separating the HOV lane and other lanes in the uphill section from double white solid lines to one dotted white line and one solid white line.
The dotted line would be on the same side as the HOV lane, while the solid line would be on the side of the lane next to the HOV lane.
The new marking means that cars are able to switch from the HOV lane to other lanes, but cars from other lanes cannot change to the HOV lane.
Currently, drivers on the 19km HOV lane can switch lanes at any of the nine sections in which it is permissible, but they are not allowed to do so on the uphill section.
As to when the ban on switching lanes on the uphill section would be lifted, the National Freeway Bureau said it would have to find a contractor to remove the current traffic lines first and draw new ones, adding that drivers should not have to wait too long.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS