Highway System in Taiwan

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Highways in Taiwan, Republic of China are classified into four types:

  1. National Highway: 1 - 10
  2. Provincial Highway: 1 - 28, 61 - 88
  3. County Highway: 101 - 205
  4. Township Highway

Contents

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The numbering system

As a general rule, the odd numbers represent north-south highways and even numbers represent east-west. The numbers increase moving west to east and north to south. Major north-south provincial highways are indicated by a one-digit number. Spurs of a highway use the same number, followed by a heavenly stem character. However, for English translation, these characters are replaced by letters in the alphabetical order.

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National highways

Image:ROC National Highway 1 Taipei lower.jpg Image:ROC National Highway 1 Taipei upper.jpg Image:ROC National Highway 1 Exit 17.jpg Image:National freeway 1.PNG

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History

Generally speaking, national highways are freeways. The construction of the national highways began in 1971 and its design is heavily based on the American Interstate Highway System. The Northern section between Keelung City and Jhongli City was completed in 1974. The construction of the first freeway (No. 1) was completed in 1978. The freeway runs from the northern harbor Keelung to the southern harbor Kaohsiung. There was an 8.6 km branch (No. 1A) connecting the C.K.S. Airport.

Construction began on the other freeways in the late 1980s. The north section of the second north-south freeway (No. 3) between Sijhih City and Hsinchu City was completed in 1997. The No. 1A Branch was extended to link No. 3 Freeway at Yingge, Taipei and renamed as No. 2 Freeway. Three other short freeways (No. 4, No. 8, and No. 10) were built to link the two north-south freeways in Taichung County, Tainan County, and Kaohsiung County, respectively. The entire No. 3 Freeway was completed in January, 2004.

To ease the congestion of No. 1 Freeway in the Taipei metropolitan area, a 20 km elevated bridge was built in 1997 on top of the original freeway between Sijhih City and Wugu, Taipei to serve as a bypass for traffic not exiting/entering the freeway within the boundaries of the City of Taipei.

The construction of a freeway connecting the Taipei metropolitan area and Yilan County began in 1991. It includes a 12.9 km tunnel (Syueshan Tunnel), which will be the fifth longest road tunnel in the world. An extension from Yilan County to Hualian County is planned. However, its construction is being delayed by environmental concerns.

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Features

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Mileage, exits, and entrances

Image:Taiwan Freeway Exit Sign.gif Image:Taiwan Freeway New Exit Sign.gif Every one tenth of a kilometer is marked on the freeway with Arabic numerals to indicate freeway mileage; that is, the number of kilometers away from the northern end or western end of the freeway. Exit numbers are based on the freeway mileage. With the notable exception of exit-only signs which are only expressed in Chinese (but with a right arrow indicating an exit-only lane), exit notification and system route reminder signs in the ROC freeway system are almost identical to their US counterparts.

Image:Taiwan Freeway Exit Only Road Diagram.PNG

There are four types of exit notification signs. The first notification sign appears two kilometers before the exit, providing the destination name and an "Exit 2 km" notice. The second sign appears one kilometer before the exit, providing the destination name and a "Right Lane" notice. The "Right Lane" notice warns the exiting driver to start switching to the right lane in preparation to exit and does not necessarily indicate that the right lane is an exit only lane. The third sign appears a few hundred meters before the exit, providing the destination name and a right tilted arrow. The fourth sign is located at the exit and says "Exit" with a tilted right arrow.

Image:Taiwan Freeway 2km Exit Sign.gif

Image:Taiwan Freeway 1km Exit Sign.gif

Exit notification signs were slightly altered in December 2005. The green exit mileage label on top of the exit notification sign has been replaced with a yellow exit mileage label accompanied with the Chinese code name of the interchange. The Chinese code name of the interchange does not necessarily reflect the destinations listed on the exit signs and may represent the general location of the freeway interchange.

Long rectangular-dash dividers usually separate normal lanes. Short rectangular-dash dividers usually indicates a lane that is ready to turn into an exit, a merging lane, or a lane reserved for vehicles that have difficulty climbing high grade regions of the freeway.

Freeway entrances may have traffic lights to control the flow of vehicles entering the freeway.

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Traveling through tunnels

In the tunnel portions of freeways, lane passing is prohibited when the lane divider consists of two parallel undashed lines. Headlights must be turned on when traveling through tunnels; this is enforced by special cameras.

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Speed limit

The speed limit for cars on Taiwan's freeways range from 70 km/h (roughly 45 mph) on Freeway No. 5 (north of Toucheng, Yilan) to 110 km/h (roughly 65 mph) on Freeway No. 3 (south of Tucheng, Taipei). The speed limit for trucks are usually 10 km/h lower. In non-traffic jam conditions, a vehicle must travel at least 60 km/h (roughly 35 mph).

Speed limits are enforced through radar activated cameras that take pictures of speed-violating cars. Because of protests from speed violators who refuse to admit their own errors, warning signs are given in advance in Chinese of approaching radar activated cameras. Despite these sign warnings, speed violators continue to be captured by cameras.

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Toll station

Toll stations are located every thirty to forty kilometers on the North-South freeways, No. 1, No. 3, and No. 5. The toll is 40 TWD for cars, 50 TWD for buses and trucks, and 65 TWD for semitrailers. Most toll stations collect tolls on both direction of the traffic with the exception of Sijhih Toll Station on Freeway No. 1 and Cidu Toll Station on Freeway No. 3, where only the northbound traffic is subject to the toll.

There are no freeway exits once a toll station notification sign appears, making it necessary for the driver to be familiar with the locations of the toll stations in advance. Toll booth operators only collect prepaid tickets on the left lanes of the station; cash and tickets are collected on the right lanes. Some people who know the final exit before a toll station will deliberately exit the freeway before the station and re-enter the freeway after the station; however, most people find this to be an inconvenience and just pay the toll.

Starting February 10, 2006, the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system is offered as a fast and convenient method to pay the toll. However, the system has been under controversy.

Image:Taiwan Freeway Toll Station Notification.gif

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Rest Areas

Freeway rest areas start appearing south of Taoyuan City on the No. 1 and No. 3 freeways. Most rest areas provide gas stations, gift shops, convenience stores, and food courts. The Cingshuei rest area located on the 172.4 km mileage marker of National Highway No. 3 is so popular that visitors can only park for 45 minutes and prohibited from barbecuing.

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List of national highways

There are seven national highways as of 2004. They are administered by the National Freeway Bureau.

Route under construction is:

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Provincial highways

Image:TWPHW61.png Provincial highways are administered by Directorate General of Highways under Department of Transportation and Communications since 1999. Before the mid-1990s, the numbers of provincial highways were limited to 1 - 27. In the 1992, 12 east-west expressways and the West-Coast Expressway, indicated by a number greater than 60, were planned to ease the congestion in the freeways. Some of these expressways are still under construction.

Officially, provincial highways are now known as Taiwan highways. However, many people still refer to them as provincial roads (省道 sheng-dao).

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See also

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External links

Template:Freeways and Expressways in Taiwan

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