The officials anticipated another surge in traffic flow today when married women take their families to visit to their parents in accordance with the time-honored Chinese tradition.

Although married into other families, married women still abide by the tradition to bring their husbands and children to their own families to pay respects to family elders with gifts on the second day of the New Year.

They said the best policy is to shun the freeways and use the local and regional highway networks if motorists do not want to be held up in heavy traffic.

Despite the rain and chilly weather in most parts of northern Taiwan, many people still took their families on “spring outing” trips on the Lunar New Year’s Day yesterday.

Most of their destinations were scenic spots and amusement parks scattered around the island.

There were traffic snarls at most tourist attractions starting from around 10 a.m. when vehicles concentrated on the same spots.

More than 2.07 million vehicles ran on the north-south Freeways Nos. 1, 3 and 5 on Saturday, New Year’s Eve, representing 1.3 times the amount on normal days.

Traffic flow remained heavy yesterday. A total of 300,000 cars hit the freeways during the period from midnight to 6 a.m., equaling 2.1 times the number of cars on ordinary holidays and three times the figure for normal days.

But certain sections on the freeways experienced slowdowns with average speeds dropping down to 40 to 60 kilometers per hour or even between 30 and 50 km per hour after 7 a.m.

The newly inaugurated Hsuehshan (Mt. Snow) Tunnel on the No. 5 Freeway between Nangang of Taipei and Yilan County in northeastern Taiwan registered record number of vehicles passing through the tunnel during a single day.

Officials of the Taiwan Area National Expressway Bureau also suggested that motorists check with the bureau’s Web site —www.freeway.gov.tw — for the latest traffic conditions on the freeways.

Dialing “1968” or staying tuned to broadcasting programs on traffic conditions will also help motorists get the latest information to shun freeway sections experiencing slow speed, they added.

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