How has the drive along the 9 improved?

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

I see they got the new bypass/throughpass/tunnel/highway/whatever done on the 9. The old route used to be very nice but very slow and annoying due to everyone waiting behind busses or “that one family”.

Has the new high-speed route through the second half of the former-route 9 alleviated congestion so the windy road is now perhaps nice to drive through? Or do the busses, etc, still use it and block up the traffic?

Edit: apparently there is confusion about “which route 9” - see this post for clarification: How has the drive along the 9 improved?

2

it’s still 60 km/h :frowning:

3

I thought in Taiwan the posted speeds were minimums?

3 Likes
4

It cuts a lot of the time by being a straighter line.

1 Like
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Oh I see. I am not asking about the “new 9” - I am sure that is faster.

I mean the opposite; now that there is a faster way, has congestion eased significantly on the old “canyon carving” route, to where one can maintain a steady speed through it? Or are there still big and/or slow vehicles clogging it up?

6

Ah. Couldn’t tell ya.

7

Faster, dont get car sick. Lots more changes to route 9 are planned/starting as well.

Sure are a lot more “southerners” in Taidong now. Reminds me just slightly of when the Chinese tourists came, but not that bad.

Must be fewer car accidents as people really drive for shit through the mountains. But see a lot more weekend accidents throughout the county now with more people. The CCP virus has slowed down a lot of that craziness.

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Edit: 9 near Suao, big trucks were not allowed on the new 9 at the start and still used the old route. Heard they were considering allowing big trucks take the new 9 but don’t know if it started.

9

What was their logic on that one? Ware out the road? One would think they built the road properly and could plan for that. They even built a new scale and police checkpoint on the Pingdong side. That along with the pre existing one on the Taidong side, just tax them.

10

My bad, I thought you were talking about 9 near Suao.

11

Wait what? I am talking about the East-West road that connects to Taitong that has a newly build tunnel for the second half of it. Were you saying trucks are not allowed there so they continue to climb up and down the mountain roads?

12

No, I was talking about the same road, 9, but at a different location, near Suao.

13

In Europe if the signs are blue, it’s minimum.

14

Oh dang. Sorry i thought we were talking about Taidong to pingdong, not Yilan tgeough Hualien and taidong. Im confused now haha. For reference i was speaking of the pingtung/taitung tunnel/roads that are recently opening up and future taitung county roads.

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This is what i was talking about. Blue = new (which i am sure is fast), red = old(which i want to know how the current drive is)

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Might be some info in this other recent thread.

17

Yes that route is WAY less congested. The old mountain road still has trucks so you might get stuck at ultra annoying slow speed. But the advantage almost all the assholes that drive on the winding, massively blind, corners at 160kph are gone now. So for speed it is still much better but there are still a lot of commercial vehicles. That said it is far safer now now due to duche bags taking the new route and killing families closer to taitung city proper.