Highway Bureau, MOTCHighway Bureau, MOTC

Purpose

Due to the differences in function and level of service provided by the highway system in different country and the differences in the design standard, it causes difference in the highway administrative management affairs, such as formulation of route system, determination of road ownership, the recognition by the competent authority, and the principle of budget sharing. Therefore, highway system must be classified in order to facilitate highway management. The Ministry of Transportation and Communications established “Highway Route System Classification Standard” and attached table “Tale of Setup Elements” on June 13th, 2014 according to Article 4 of Highway Act to discuss transportation demand, regional population, and city level division. Based on the feeder routes between each city level, a further classification on highway level and standard was then carried out to integrate the administrative classification, functional classification, and design standard classification among highways so that it can be used as the accord of evaluation for each route.

Highway administrative classification

According to the definition provided in Article 2 of Highway Act, highway administrative classification can be classified into four levels and 6 categories, including national highway, provincial highway, city highway and county highway, district road and country road. Detailed description is as below.

• National highway: Refers to freeways or expressways which connect two or more municipalities (or provinces), major ports, airports, or major political, economic and cultural centers.
• Provincial highway: Refers to major roadways which connect two or more counties or municipalities (or provinces), or major political, economic and cultural centers.
• City highway: Refers to roads which connect municipalities (or counties) or major districts within municipalities.
• County highway: Refers to roads which connect counties (cities) or county center with major townships.
• District highways: Refers to roads which connect districts within or district centers with the villages or indigenous peoples' neighborhoods in the district.
• Country road: Refers to roads which connect neighbor townships or villages, and indigenous peoples' neighborhoods within the township.
• Special highways: Refers to roads constructed by public or private institutions for their exclusive transport use.

Highway functional classification

The so-called highway functional classification refers to the different roles that different highways play among the whole highway transportation network, such as highway that provide through traffic service or the function of regional entrance or highway that is with entry control or signal-controlled intersection, lane allocation as well as several traffic service functions to vehicles, motorcycles, and pedestrians. The classification is carried out according to its traffic transportation function. Highway system is like the blood vessels in human body, and it contains major and minor highways. The main highways are with flexibility (mobility) but lack of accessibility while regional highways are with very high accessibility but lack mobility. Therefore, in terms of network planning, the function shall be assigned according to the demand of traffic transportation based on the existing or planned routes in order to operate the entire traffic transportation system flexibly. The functional classification on highway traffic is described as below:

• Freeway
  It is the highest level of highway and it is a fully access-controlled highway. Other than starting and ending points, an interchange is established by the entrance and the exit. It is a highway with two-way divided traffic and more than two lanes in both directions. This kind of highway carries traffic between intercity transportation and between metropolitan centers. Therefore, it is a highway that is with the highest mobility but the lowest accessibility. In Taiwan, the construction of highway started late, and the first Sun Yat-sen Freeway opened to the public was on October 31st, 1978. Its total length from Keelung to Kaohsiung is 373.3 kilometers.
• Expressway
  It is the second highest level of highway and it is a fully or partially access-controlled highway. In principle, an interchange shall be established by the entrance and the exit. However, if necessary, its intersection with major and minor highway (road) can be signal-controlled intersection. It is a highway with two-way divided traffic and more than two lanes in both directions. The main function of this kind of highway is to connect metropolitan (secondary metropolitan) center and major local center, or two major local centers. Its mobility is a little bit lower than freeway, but its accessibility is a little bit higher than freeway. In the Taiwan area, the 1st expressway was the MacArthur Thruway that was opened to the public in May 1964. Its total length from Keelung to Taipei was 22.65 kilometers, and it was canceled due to some sections overlapping with Sun Yat-sen Freeway. In 1992, Executive Yuan approved “East-West 12 Expressway Program in Taiwan” and “West Coast Expressway Construction Program” and the construction of expressway has continued.
• Major highway
  It refers to the artery of traffic, such as highways that accommodate through traffic service, or connect central business area with surrounding residence area or suburb central area with main community in the city. It shall be established traffic facilities for pedestrians, motorcycles, and slow-moving vehicles. It is a highway with part of or none access-controlled two-way traffic with more than two lanes. Its main function is to connect major local center in the city with minor local center or major local center with important ports or airports. It is a highway with accessibility higher than expressway.
• Minor highway
  It is a highway that connects with major highway system, and it is with multiple various traffic service functions servicing a mix of automobile, slow vehicles, motorcycles, and pedestrians. It is a highway with no access control in two-way dual lanes; when necessary, partial access control can be carried out. Its main function is to connect metropolitan (secondary metropolitan) center and major (minor) local center with important or general district and township (town, city). Its mobility is lower than major highway, but its accessibility is a higher than major highway.
• Regional highway
  It is a highway that provides connection between regional access and minor highway and with multiple various traffic service functions servicing a mix of automobile, slow vehicles, motorcycles, and pedestrians. It can be a two-way dual lane with no access control or single lane for both directions. Its main function is to connect major (minor) local center with important district, township (town, city) and village settlements. It is with the lowest mobility but the highest accessibility.

Highway design standard classification

According to “Highway Route Design Regulations” published by Ministry of Transportation and Communications, highways are divided into six levels from level 1 to level 6. It can be classified into city area and urban area according to the regional characteristics that the highway route through. Highway level and its speed design classification is as the table below.

Note 1: If the design of 30 km/ hr will cause impact towards the environment or huge increase of budget, the lowest speed shall be 20 km/ hr.

Note 2: The level of special highway shall be determined by the institution that constructs it according to the demand and submit to the competent authority for approval. (Based on Highway Route Design Regulations published by Ministry of Transportation and Communications (2019-09-20)).