The Freeway Bureau yesterday announced a series of measures to facilitate freeway traffic during the Lunar New Year holiday, with the highest traffic volume expected on Feb. 7, the fourth day of the holiday.
Southbound freeway traffic would be heavy from Lunar New Year’s Eve to noon on Feb. 7, bureau Deputy Director-General Wu Mu-fu (吳木富) said.
Starting in the afternoon on the fourth day of the holiday, northbound traffic would become heavier, he said.
Photo: Wu Chun-feng, Taipei Times
The holiday lasts from Feb. 2 to Feb. 10, including the two weekends before and after the five-day holiday.
Southbound traffic would be heavy from Feb. 5 to Feb. 7, the bureau said, adding that the heaviest southbound traffic is expected on Feb. 6, with the traffic volume potentially reaching 71 million vehicle kilometers (MVK).
Feb. 6, the third day of the holiday, is traditionally when married couples visit the wife’s parents.
Northbound traffic is to be heavy from Feb. 7 to Feb. 9, with the heaviest traffic expected on Feb. 8, possibly reaching 76MVK, the bureau said.
The total traffic volume on Feb. 7 could top 140MVK, which would beat the record of 138MVK set on the third day of the 2017 Lunar New Year holiday, the bureau said.
A series of measures to facilitate freeway traffic is to be enforced, Wu said.
In addition to regular toll-free hours between 12am and 5am, a high-occupancy vehicle policy — which requires that each car carry at least three passengers on freeways — would be implemented from 1pm to 6pm on Feb. 7 and Feb. 8 on the northbound lanes of the National Sun Yat-Sen Freeway (Freeway No. 1) and Formosa Freeway (Freeway No. 3), Wu said.
On the Chiang Wei-Shui Freeway (Freeway No. 5), high-occupancy vehicle hours would be implemented on the southbound lanes between 7am and 12pm from Feb. 5 to Feb. 7, he said.
From Feb. 7 to Feb. 10, the high-occupancy hours on Freeway No. 5 would be enforced on the northbound lane from 2pm to 9pm, he added.
In related news, the Tourism Bureau is planning to expand the domestic travel subsidy program to include subsidies during low-travel seasons and weekdays, following a proposal President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) put forward at the end of last year, Tourism Bureau Director-General Chou Yung-hui (周永暉) said.
According to the bureau’s preliminary plan, the subsidies would be awarded to tourists traveling domestically between April and June, as well as between October and November, which are the nation’s off-peak travel seasons, Chou said, adding that the subsidies would be only part of the program.
“We hope to first talk to local government officials in a seminar on Jan. 23 to get some ideas. We will also spend two to three months talking to tourism operators nationwide about how to motivate people to travel during the off-peak seasons,” Chou said.
The agency would also evaluate the performance of the winter travel subsidy program, which ends at the end of this month, he added.
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
TRADE-OFF: Beijing seeks to trade a bowl of tempura for a Chinese delicacy, an official said, while another said its promises were attempts to interfere in the polls The government must carefully consider the national security implications of building a bridge connecting Kinmen County and Xiamen, China, the Public Construction Commission (PCC) said yesterday. PCC Commissioner Derek Chen (陳金德), who is also a minister without portfolio, made the remarks in a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsu Fu-kuei (徐富癸) asked about China’s proposal of new infrastructure projects to further connect Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties with Xiamen. China unveiled the bridge plan, along with nine other policies for Taiwan, on Sunday, the last day of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) visit
RSS