Transportation Bureau, Kaohsiung City Government

Due to high travel intensity between Kaohsiung and Pingtung the highway and bridges across Gaoping River, which separates the two areas, play an important role in the transportation infrastructure of the South Taiwan region. These roadways become severely impacted during the flood season, leading to various traffic disruptions and even road closures. Due to the fact that these roadways run through two different administrative districts, they are managed by different administrative units. In order to minimize the negative effects of such factors on the traffic, the government agencies of Kaohsiung and Pingtung have to maximize the efficiency of their coordination as well to find optimal ways to collect, process and integrate the traffic information, so as to improve the efficiency of transportation between the two regions.

Thus, Kaohsiung’s City Government embarked on a plan titled ‘Regional traffic control system integration project between Kaohsiung and Pingtung’ together with Pingtung County to establish a regional traffic control system platform that receives and processes the traffic information from Kaohsiung city, Pingtung County, as well as from the Directorate General of Highways and National Freeway Bureau. The plan will allow the government agencies and the local authorities to better coordinate and communicate the strategies for coping with various traffic situations and effect the right responses when problems occur.

At the same time, an intelligent traffic signals intersection is created at the Fengding plane intersection of Provincial Highway No.88, where the Provincial Highway crosses Guopi Rd. This intersection is characterized by a complex layout of road, with intense traffic volumes at the turns of the intersection, often leading to congestions and overflow of vehicles during the rush hour. This intersection presents the most serious challenge in terms of traffic, where vehicles often have to wait for two to three traffic signal cycles time before passing it, leading to blockages back to the main section of Provincial Highway NO.88. Intelligent traffic signals allow for real-time detection of traffic in all directions, real-time calculation and traffic signal phase changes, which significantly improves the operational efficiency of the intersection.

For the implementation of the regional traffic control system planning and construction plan, from 2003 careful scenario planning for various events has been undertaken for the three bridges and the road network between Kaohsiung and Pingtung. In 2004, the regional traffic control events system was extended to National Freeway No. 1 (the Kaohsiung Interchange to Wujia Interchange), National Freeway No. 3 (the Zhutian System Interchange to Dapeng Bay Interchange), Provincial Highway No.88 (the Wujia Interchange to Zhutian System Interchange). Agencies responsible for the administration of the road units include Kaohsiung City, Pingtung County, Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau and Directorate General of Highways. Service is established via the Area Traffic Control System, consolidating all traffic-related equipment information for each unit and quickly providing the relevant content with transportation policy. Information managements for all units can be related to the content distribution strategy, resolving inconsistencies for past traffic information, we can provide a consistent user information.

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