| Content | The 2020 Dragon Boat Festival holiday are about to start, occurring over a four-day period from Thursday, June 25 to Sunday, June 28. The Festival this year will be the first holiday since the slowing of the Covid-19 pandemic, and it arrives just as the restrictions on travel are being relaxed. Moreover, the restrictions on travel abroad will likely increase the domestic travel willingness. Thus, it is expected that tourism will be heavier than in previous years. The Directorate General of Highways has been examined the traffic situation during Spring Festival and Tomb Sweeping holidays in past years and planned transport managements and strategies carefully.
The DGH and Freeway Bureau, the transportation and police departments of 22 local governments and other relevant units have been established a joint defense operation. Before the holidays begin, the DGH refers previous holiday traffic performances, and the 11 congestion sections on freeways estimated by Freeway Bureau. Road ramps closure, traffic signs guidance for alternative routes have been applied. Moreover, the DGH also suggests 20 easily congested roads and 3 main corridors (Including the Suhua Highway and South Link Highway of Provincial Highway No.9 and Western Coast Expressway No.61), and provides strategies such as planning alternative routes, flexible adjustments on signal timing, traffic directing and enforcements by local police, ramp metering on roads connecting to freeways, and other temporary transport managements.
According to the room occupancy of hotels during the holidays provided by the Tourism Bureau, the DGH has examined 18 access roads to the popular scenic areas and generated transport managements in advance. During the holidays, the information for total number of tourists or parking occupancy will be released on the Changeable Message Signs (CMS) along the routes. In addition, through the real-time information exchange and horizontal connections, road users can look up the “Intelligent Provincial Highways Real-Time Information”, or download “Happy Highways APP” for routes guidance before travel.
Yilan, Hualien, Taitung and Kenting areas are expected to be the most crowded hotspots in the holidays. Thus, The Suhua Highway and South Link Highway of Provincial Highway No.9 will be extremely congested. According to the estimation by the DGH, peak hours for Su Hua Highway will begin from 3am June 25th southbound and 12pm June 27th northbound, on South Link Highway, the |