Heavy traffic congestion was seen throughout Taiwan’s freeway system at the start of the four-day 228 Peace Memorial Day weekend Saturday, with some of the tie-ups caused by accidents, according to the Freeway Bureau.

As of 12 p.m., traffic volume had reached 49.9 million vehicle-kilometers, a measure of traffic flow, and was likely to top 120 million vehicle-kilometers by the time the day was over, the bureau said.

Both figures were in line with bureau estimates, it said.

The sections of freeways that saw the heaviest traffic in the morning included Freeway No. 1’s northbound lanes between Yuanshan and Xizhi in northern Taiwan, Freeway No. 3’s southbound lanes between Tianliao and Yanchao in the south, and Freeway No. 6’s eastbound lanes between Wufeng and Jiuzheng in central Taiwan.

Early Saturday morning, traffic in the southbound lanes of National Freeway No. 1 near Xinying in the Tainan area was brought to a halt when a collision occurred between two trucks and a passenger vehicle at around 5:07 a.m., the bureau said.

The three-vehicle crash led to a 5 kilometer-long line of vehicles, it said, but traffic was restored by 10:41 a.m.

Two other traffic-related accidents occurred Saturday morning on the southbound lanes of Freeway No. 3, one near the Lantan Tunnel in Chiayi, and the other near the Tianliao section in Kaohsiung, according to the bureau.

Several other stretches showed congestion late Saturday afternoon, including on southbound lanes on Freeway No. 5 between Nangang in Taipei and Toucheng in Yilan County, and on southbound lanes on Freeway No. 1 between Yangmei and Hsinchu.

Traffic also remained choppy heading north on Freeway No. 1 between Sanchong and Qidu in the north and on southbound lanes between Sanyi and Houli in central Taiwan. (Road users can check Freeway 1968 for real-time freeway traffic)

Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Highways (DGH), which is responsible for Taiwan’s other major roadways that circle the island but are slower than freeways, warned that those highways were also vulnerable to traffic congestion as people headed to tourist hotspots.

They included the section between Wanli and Dawulun on Provincial Highway No. 2 in northern Taiwan, and the sections between Guandu and Tamsui, the DGH said.

It said visitors were also seen driving in large numbers to Hehuanshan in Nantou County early in the morning, but the traffic to the peak seemed to have eased as of late Saturday afternoon.

Transportation Minister Wang Kwo-tsai (???) said traffic on the first day of the long weekend was about 8 percent heavier than during the same holiday period last year.

That could be because more people are willing to travel this year as the COVID-19 situation in Taiwan improves, he said.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel