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.
A Keelung high school on Saturday night apologized for using a picture containing a Chinese flag on the cover of the senior yearbook, adding that it has recalled the books and pledged to provide students new ones before graduation on Thursday. Of 309 Affiliated Keelung Maritime Senior High School of National Taiwan Ocean University graduates, 248 had purchased the yearbook. Some students said that the printer committed an outrageous error in including the picture, while others said that nobody would notice such a small flag on the cover. Other students said that they cared more about the photographs of classmates and what was
GOING INTERNATIONAL: Rakuten Girls squad leader Ula Shen said she was surprised that baseball fans outside of Taiwan not only knew of them, but also knew their names Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Oakland Athletics on Saturday hosted its first Taiwanese Heritage Day event at the Oakland Coliseum with a performance by Taiwanese cheerleading squad the Rakuten Girls and a video message from Vice President William Lai (賴清德). The Rakuten Girls, who are the cheerleaders for the CPBL’s Rakuten Monkeys, performed in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 people, followed by a prerecorded address by Lai about Taiwan’s baseball culture and democratic spirit. Taiwanese pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸), who was signed by the Athletics earlier this year, was also present. Mizuki Lin (林襄), considered a “baseball cheerleading goddess” by Taiwanese
WAY OF THE RUKAI: ‘Values deemed worthy often exist amid discomfort, so when people go against the flow, nature becomes entwined with our lives,’ a student said “Run, don’t walk” after your dreams, Nvidia cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) told National Taiwan University (NTU) graduates yesterday, as several major universities held in-person graduation ceremonies for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. “What will you create? Whatever it is, run after it. Run, don’t walk. Remember, either you’re running for food, or you are running from becoming food. Oftentimes, you can’t tell which. Either way, run,” he said. Huang was one of several tech executives addressing graduating students at Taiwanese universities. National Chengchi University held two ceremonies, with alumnus Patrick Pan (潘先國), who is head of Taiwan
A 14-legged giant isopod is the highlight of a new dish at a ramen restaurant in Taipei and it has people lining up — both for pictures and for a bite from this bowl of noodles. Since “The Ramen Boy” launched the limited-edition noodle bowl on Monday last week, declaring in a social media post that it had “finally got this dream ingredient,” more than 100 people have joined a waiting list to dine at the restaurant. “It is so attractive because of its appearance — it looks very cute,” said the 37-year-old owner of the restaurant, who wanted to be
RSS