Freeways are to be toll-free during the Double Ten National Day holiday from 12am to 5am during the first three days and from 12am to 10am on the last day of the long weekend, the Freeway Bureau announced on Sunday.
The Double Ten National Day holiday this year is from Oct. 10 to Oct. 13.
All freeway drivers are to be charged NT$0.9 per kilometer during the holiday, the bureau said, adding that the regular weekend policy of a toll-free first 20km is to be suspended.
Drivers taking the route between the Hsinchu and Yenchao (燕巢) interchanges would receive an additional 20 percent discount on tolls, it said.
Drivers would need to observe the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) policy on certain freeway sections on certain days.
On Oct. 10, HOV hours would be enforced from 7am to 12pm on southbound ramps of the Neihu (內湖) and Toufen (頭份) interchanges of the Sun Yat-sen Freeway (Freeway No. 1) and ramps of the Mucha (木柵) and Hsiangshan (香山) interchanges of the Formosa Freeway (Freeway No. 3), the bureau said.
On Oct. 10 and 11, HOV hours would be enforced from 7am to 12pm on southbound ramps of the Nangang (南港), Shihding (石碇) and Pinglin (坪林) interchanges of the Chiang Wei-shui Memorial Freeway (Freeway No. 5), it said.
On Oct. 12 and 13, HOV hours would be enforced from 2pm to 9pm on northbound ramps of the Suao (蘇澳), Luodong (羅東) and Yilan (宜蘭) interchanges of Freeway No. 5, it said, adding that the HOV hours on these two days could change depending on northbound traffic.
The bureau said it would also enforce other measures to facilitate holiday traffic, such as peak hours, closing certain southbound and northbound ramps on Freeway No. 1 and Freeway No. 3, opening freeway shoulders to traffic on several sections and activating meters on a few ramps to strictly regulate the traffic entering the lanes.
Yesterday, the bureau started charging drivers for the cleanup of debris or items that fall from vehicles on freeways.
Drivers are exempt from paying the fee if it takes less than 30 minutes to remove the debris, the bureau said.
If the cleanup time is 30 minutes or more, the driver would need to pay NT$3,000 per traffic lane closed for every 30 minutes that workers are cleaning up, it added.
More than 40,000 cases of freeway debris are recorded each year, the bureau said, adding that the debris not only disrupts traffic, but also causes secondary accidents.
About 7,000 cases involve broken tire treads, it added.
In addition, the Hsinchu Motor Vehicle Office has been entrusted by the Directorate-General of Highways to publish a pamphlet in March next year that would instruct drivers how to properly tie up goods on a cargo truck, the bureau said.
RISK FACTORS: ‘We hope people can cooperate and endure it ... it is possibly the very important last mile,’ Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung said Taiwan’s COVID-19 restrictions and mask regulations are to remain the same next month, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. The center reported 42,112 new local COVID-19 cases and 85 deaths, saying that the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has dropped to a new low this month. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, said that the center is keeping COVID-19 restrictions and mask regulations the same due to the local virus situation, and an increase in the number of imported cases of the new Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 of SARS-CoV-2, among other risk factors. Easing
TRAVEL CONFERENCE: Representatives from the two countries exchanged views on how to increase tourist numbers, with one identifying individual travel as a trend Taiwan and South Korea aim to increase the number of tourists traveling between the two countries to 3 million, government and tourism industry representatives said at a conference in Hsinchu City yesterday. The annual event was attended by Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯); Tourism Bureau Director-General Chang Shi-chung (張錫聰); Taiwan Visitors Association chairwoman Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭); South Korean Representative to Taiwan Chung Byung-won; Yoon Ji-sook, an official at the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism; and Korea Association of Travel Agents chairman Oh Chang-hee. Global tourism is expected to soon rebound to between 55 and
DAMAGE CONTROL: The KMT in a statement called the Taiwan Strait ‘international waters,’ after Alexander Huang said China had the right to claim it as internal waters Lawmakers and experts yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) envoy to the US Alexander Huang (黃介正) of acting as China’s stooge, after he said that Beijing has the right to claim waters beyond its maritime territory as its exclusive economic zone and that the US has no legal basis to assert that the Taiwan Strait is an “international waterway.” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said in an online post that most of the world considers the Strait an international waterway, adding that this is important for safeguarding Taiwan. “We have seen US warships transiting through the Taiwan Strait.
The Taichung District Court yesterday sentenced to nine years in prison an unlicensed judo coach who caused the death of a seven-year-old student after slamming him onto the ground more than a dozen times. In its decision against the coach, a man surnamed Ho (何), the court cited his lack of remorse for using excessive force against an inadequately trained child and his failure to reconcile with the parents for his role in their son’s death. Speaking on behalf of the boy’s mother, Taichung City Councilor Jacky Chen (陳清龍) said the family would appeal to a higher court. Prosecutors said that Ho on