Traffic on the nation’s freeways was relatively smooth on Friday as the 10-day Lunar New Year holiday began, according to the Freeway Bureau.
As of noon, traffic volume reached 43.7 million vehicle-kilometers, a measure of traffic flow, and is likely to top 100 million vehicle-kilometers by the time the day is over, the bureau said.
Both figures are in line with previous estimates, the bureau said, adding that weekday freeway traffic is 88 million vehicle-kilometers on average.
Road sections that saw heavier traffic in the morning included Freeway No. 1’s southbound lanes between the Hukou and Hsinchu interchanges in northern Taiwan, and southbound lanes between Wangtian and Changhua intersections in central Taiwan.
By mid-afternoon, traffic had begun building up on the southbound lanes of Freeway No. 5 between the Nangang and Pinglin exits and on the southbound lanes of Freeway No. 1 between the Hukou and Xiangshan exits, according to bureau information.
Traffic was also getting heavy on the southbound lands of Freeway No. 3 between Daxi and Guanxi.
There were reports of multiple car accidents on freeways No. 1, No. 3 and No. 5 Friday, with the most severe taking place on the southbound lanes of Freeway No. 5 near the Pinglin exit, the bureau said.
No casualties were reported, but cars were lined up for as many as 3 kilometers before the site was cleared.
According to the bureau, holiday traffic is expected to be the heaviest on southbound lanes during the early part of the holiday, from Jan. 21 to 24, and heavier on northbound lanes from Jan. 25 to 29.
Information on real-time traffic conditions can be found at https://1968.freeway.gov.tw/?lang=en or by downloading the mobile application available at https://1968.freeway.gov.tw/sapp.
In addition, railway traffic is expected to peak around Jan. 24, according to the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) and Taiwan High Speed Rail.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel