Freeway traffic volume on Sunday, the second day of the Dragon Boat Festival long weekend, dropped 63 percent compared with last year as most people have refrained from traveling amid a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert, the Freeway Bureau said yesterday.
Last year, the long weekend began on Thursday and ended on Sunday, while this year it began on Saturday and ended yesterday.
Bureau data showed that the traffic volume on the second day of the long weekend this year was 43.3 million vehicle kilometers (MVK), down from 114.3MVK last year.
Photo: CNA
About 760,000 vehicles were on freeways on Sunday, down from 1.51 million last year, the bureau said.
The number of vehicles traveling more than 150km dropped by about 71 percent, it said.
“We have urged people to reduce travel across different regions in compliance with the government’s disease prevention policy. Large passenger vehicles and logistics service vehicles should have priority for accessing freeways,” the bureau said.
On Thursday last week, the bureau said that it aimed to reduce the number of vehicles on freeways to about 1 million per day.
To deter road trips, the bureau extended vehicles’ wait times on feeder roads to freeways, and closed all shopping areas and food courts at freeway rest areas.
On Saturday, freeway traffic volume was down 56.6 percent at 52MVK, bureau data showed. The number of vehicles traveling more than 150km decreased 65 percent.
However, the high-intensity traffic control measures backfired as freeway commuters and logistics vehicle drivers were reported to have waited on feeder roads for more than an hour before they could access freeways.
After motorists criticized the measures, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) on Sunday said that, from 4pm that day, freeway traffic would be adjusted to the same volume as on regular weekends.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS