Lunar New Year's Day travel drives freeway traffic up roughly 30%

Taipei, Feb. 17 (CNA) Lunar New Year's Day travel brought widespread congestion across Taiwan on Tuesday, with freeway traffic up an estimated 30.5 percent, according to the Freeway Bureau.

Traffic was particularly heavy on the Yangmei-Hsinchu, Nantun-Changhua, Donghu-Xiizhi and Rende-Tainan sections of Freeway No. 1, the bureau said in a statement.

Heavy congestion was also reported on the Sanying-Kaoyuan, Kuaiguan-Wufeng and Ankeng-Muzha sections of Freeway No. 3.

Overall freeway traffic is forecast to hit 122 million vehicle-kilometers (MVK) on Tuesday, the bureau said, well above the daily average of 93 to 94 MVK.

Expected afternoon traffic hotspots include the Yangmei-Hsinchu, Changhua-Puan and Yuanshan-Dahua sections of Freeway No. 1; the Tucheng-Guanxi and Kuaiguan-Wufeng sections of Freeway No. 3; the Nangang-Toucheng and Yilan-Pinglin sections of Freeway No. 5; the Tsaotun-Wufeng section of Freeway No. 6; and the Dingjin-Yanchao and Renwu-Zuoying sections of Freeway No. 10.

Tuesday's increased congestion also brought with it a number of accidents.

At 9:07 a.m., two passenger cars crashed into each other at around the 324.2 km mark of the northbound section of Freeway No. 1, causing a 3 km jam that was cleared 24 minutes later, the bureau said.

A separate two-car collision around the 190.1 km mark of the southbound section of Freeway No. 1 also caused 3 km tailbacks for roughly 7 minutes, the bureau added.

Meanwhile, a third two-car crash around the 12.7 km mark of the eastbound section of Freeway No. 8 slowed traffic along a 4 km stretch for around half an hour at 10:24 a.m., according to the bureau.