Allowing big motorcycles to go on the new Suhua highway means there will be fewer big motorcycles on the old Suhua highway. That’s good news for people who want to cycle the cliffside road.
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what other routes dont allow motorcycles? usually they always allow them, had no idea hualian/yilan banned them from those roads, I thought it was only expressways and freeways.
Suhua is a sort of expressway made of tunnels and viaducts that was built to bypass the existing route and make it faster/safer, like the nr. 9 mountain crossing towards Taitung. In both cases, “regular” motorcycles are directed to the old roads, making it a pleasant ride because scenic and mostly empty.
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Interesting, I had no idea. I always thought tlbecause they were the national routes, TaiXian, that the same rules applied to all the same signed roads. good to know! come to think of it, I dont remember seeing scooters in the more northern tunnels of #9. but the taitung section there are loads. the whole way. but thinking about it, that last tunnel between Pingtung and taitung I cant remember a scooter either.
is this perhaps due because of the tunnels alone?
Nr. 9 is a mix of viaducts and tunnels, but smaller motorcycles are not allowed on the whole stretch from Caobu to the coast at Daren. Suhua is more complicated because some parts still run on the old road and others will split the traffic between cars/bigger motorcycles on the new road (mostly tunnels) and smaller motorcycles on the old one.
You are right. The new road is only a small part of the whole Pingtung-Taitung stretch, which is mostly cars and motorcycles of any kind all together.
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cheers for clarifying. guess I need to be more careful riding the scooter on the new road between east and west on the southern cross! so far, no tickets! but tempting fate it seems, danm.
I don’t know the size of this project, but it looks quite big. Targeting the sections that were left behind before.
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Before the end of this year SuHua’s ZhongRen (中仁) tunnel will be opened up to white plate motorcycles. Will start as a 6-month trial same as the heavy motorcycles were. The extra space in the tunnel will be used to create a motorcycle lane.
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Rockfalls and landslides have affected Suhua Highway and the North-link rail line more often than normal since a large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3.
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Train is passing through the area north of Hualien atm. Lots of scars on the mountains. Couple of places roadside where you can seen piles of rocks and debris have been removed.
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With Taiwan Rail involved, also noted here:
Guy
Just a little more info. about the opening up the Suhua ZhongRen tunnel to white/green plate motorcycles. The trial will begin before the end of the year but nothing more specific yet. The motorcycle lane will be given a 50kmh speed limit during the initial trial period. The “car” lane speed limit is 70kmh.
Google translated section:
As for whether motorcycle traffic will be expanded to other Suhuagai tunnels in the future, Zhang Xinwei said that the pilot plan for Sections A and B (Don’ao, Guanyin and Gufeng Tunnels) of Suhuagai will be reviewed on a rolling basis based on the trial results to ensure the safety of residents in the eastern part of the country. With the ideal goal of passing and returning home safely, it is expected that Suhua Kai motorcycles will gradually be able to pass on all lines.
Update. MOTC failed to deliver on starting the trial to open this section of the new road for white and green plate motorcycles before the end of last year. Today they just announced that the trial will now begin starting April 30th. So will start in about a week and a half.
White and green plate motorcycles are banned from the inner lane and must use the motorcycle lane which will have a speed limit of 50 while vehicles in the regular traffic lane are allowed to go 70.
Riders are suggested to maintain a 50m safe following distance from the motorcycle in front of them.
One of the reasons the MOTC has previously denied the use of such tunnels to motorcycles is because they claim of possible danger due to lack of oxygen in the tunnels. Eventually they opened it up to heavy motorcycles to use and now, despite the continued claim of these dangers are finally allowing the use of standard and light motorcycles to use the tunnels…although at a much lower speed which has been criticized by people online. Calling out the MOTC for claiming that it is dangerous due to lack of oxygen but then telling people they have to ride much slower than everyone else and spend much more time in the tunnel.
Still no word on the new NanHui/Southern Link route yet as far as I know. The new tunnel section was opened up for a few days to white and green plate motorcycles sometime last year as the old route was impassable due to boulders and debris blocking the road after heavy rains if I recall correctly. Surprisingly no one died of asphyxiation.
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50M! Good luck with that, would be surprised if most riders gave 50cm in busy times!
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Are green-plate scooters still a thing? I thought they were all being phased out. Rarely see any in Taipei nowadays. How long are these tunnels, or at what length does lack of oxygen becomes a problem? These are new tunnels, wouldn’t you expect the latest in ventilation technologies and air-flow design being installed and implemented?
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Presume it also includes green plate electric motorcycles, although there’s not too many of those about either.
I think that was always a BS excuse, cars don’t exactly have a huge oxygen supply on board and there was no restriction I know of on opening a window or driving a convertible! According to AI (take with a huge pinch of salt) humans can survive oxygen levels lower than those required to operate an internal combustion engine i.e. vehicles would stop running properly in the tunnel before people would…
AI Overview
Yes, a person can survive in oxygen levels that are too low for a combustion engine to operate efficiently, but not for the engine to operate at all. While a car engine needs a specific oxygen concentration to burn fuel properly, humans can tolerate lower oxygen levels than that for a period of time. The minimum oxygen concentration for human survival is about 12%, while engines require significantly higher levels.
Here’s a more detailed breakdown:
- Combustion Engines:
Engines require a certain amount of oxygen to burn fuel and produce power. If the oxygen level is too low, the engine may struggle to start, run poorly, or even stall. Studies suggest that a minimum of 16% oxygen is needed for self-sustaining combustion in natural fuels, with 18.5% being more likely for significant fire propagation.
- Human Survival:
Humans need oxygen to breathe and maintain their vital functions. While the ideal oxygen level is around 21% (like in normal air), people can survive for a limited time with lower levels. However, prolonged exposure to low oxygen levels can cause serious health problems and even death.
- Lower Oxygen and Human Impact:
At lower oxygen levels, humans may experience symptoms like headaches, dizziness, nausea, and difficulty breathing. Continued exposure can lead to more serious complications like hypoxia (low oxygen in the blood), organ damage, and even death.
- Real-World Example:
The fact that engines have problems running at high altitudes (where oxygen is less dense) demonstrates that they need a certain oxygen concentration to function properly. Humans can also struggle at high altitudes because the reduced oxygen levels affect their bodies, as explained by Rislone.
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It seems to be more nonsense than anything else. If one of the concerns the MOTC lists is ventilation and being in the tunnels too long…then why would they force you to go slower and make you spend more time there? Unless they are intentionally trying to cause harm…well the MOTC was the one that made smoking while operating no longer allowed to be reported so now I can enjoy 2nd hand smoke on the road at a much higher rate than before. 
Actually one of the reasons the Highway Bureau has continued to maintain a ban on standard heavy motorcycles is what they claim to be a difference in speed…because such motorcycles can go 70 on regular prov. highways elsewhere no problem, but all of a sudden here it’s a massive speed difference? As well as now they are doing the trial they are forcefully creating that dangerous difference in speed by forcing motorcycles to go 20 slower…
Oh and blaming older riders saying that maybe you and I may have enough “skill” but some older people…you know it’s not like there are no old drivers driving cars either…and guess who gave people a essentially a driver’s license for life until you’re 75. Who gave them the license to begin with? Who refuses to properly implement a proper points system to force bad road users to be retrained or have any type of proper training to begin with…yup it’s the MOTC.
This was from a public hearing just in May 2023.
Both the entirety of the new SuHua Hwy and the New South Link (南迴改) are fully accessible by heavy motorcycles now and since these are only regular prov. highways the speed limit is 50-70 (depending on the area).
Remember, the entire reason these new roads and tunnels were built to circumvent the old road to provide safe passage and cut down travel time…apparently that doesn’t apply to you unless you have 4 wheels or more when they were thinking about this project.
Only 4 of the 8 SuHua tunnels are longer than 3km anyways. Over at the new South Link tunnel it’s about 4.6km long and that only takes 4-5min. to drive through so not that long.
Last time I was down there it would’ve saved me some time and been more pleasant to ride through rather than riding through the old road when it was raining, I did enjoy passing through the old road before but when I’m on the return trip and it’s raining…yeah I wish I could just take the road through the tunnel.
Here’s what it looks like going through the new South Link road on a motorcycle:
Here’s what the Highway Bureau says about not allowing motorcycles on the new Suhua Highway on their website:
Since it only says “motorcycles” without specifying the type I would assume they mean all motorcycles when they wrote this. Possible it hasn’t been updated in quite a while.
Why is Suhua Highway a general provincial highway but does not allow motorcycles to access?
The total length of Suhua Highway Improvement Project is 38.8 kilometers. Although it is a general provincial highway, there are 8 tunnels, with a length 24.5 kilometers in total, and it accounts for 63% of the whole highway. Among them, there are 4 tunnels with a length of 3 kilometers or more, and it accounts for 53% of the whole highway. Guanyin Tunnel and Gufeng Tunnel are connecting to each other, and the total length of the two tunnels is 12.6 kilometers. Compared with general provincial highway, Suhua Highway Improvement Project consist various tunnels. On top of that, it opens to large truck, making the types of vehicles using the highway a lot more complicated than Xueshan Tunnel on National Freeway No. 5. Considering there is only one lane, the most important topic when Suhua Highway Improvement Project is underway is the road safety in tunnels.
With the condition of only one lane on both traffic direction on Suhua Highway Improvement Project, as well as the consideration of ventilation, temperature, Suhua corridor accident prevention, vitalization and development of the existing settlement on Suhua Highway, and transportation flow of passenger and cargo vehicles, it is planned at the design stage that the types of vehicles can use Suhua Highway Improvement Project are small vehicles, large passenger vehicles, large trucks (including semi-trailers). In terms of motorcycles, due to the ratio of large truck in the total vehicle types on Suhua corridor (around 15% on March 9th, 2020 (Monday)) as well as the light and road environment in the closed environment of tunnel over 3 kilometers are not as good as that on general road, we take into account the high risk of motorcycles mixed in the traffic flow with large vehicles on the single lane in the long tunnel and motorcycles are relatively vulnerable in protection measures among carriers. Therefore, the conclusion is that no motorcycles shall be allowed on Suhua Highway Improvement Project, except for the section of “Hejen to Dachingshui”.
They even have a section to answer why is it okay in other countries but not Taiwan?
Why are motorcycles allowed in long tunnels in other countries?
Due to different driving environments in different countries, not all long tunnels allow motorcycles to ride through. In addition, the ratios for different vehicle type are also different in the long tunnels in other countries, as well as the design of the tunnel is usually two holes with dual lane. Therefore, the control strategy of vehicle type going through the long tunnel will not be exactly the same. As the result, we have to evaluate the traffic condition in Taiwan when planning and controlling the type of vehicle using Suhua Highway improvement Project in order to maintain the road safety for users.
[LINK]
As for them talking about the tunnels only being single lane…well they have extra space inside the tunnel initially designated for emergency vehicle use. That same space has already been converted into a motorcycle lane for the upcoming trial project, so that seems to eliminate one of their excuses.
Ever since the light motorcycle test was changed to not just require a written test, but also a course test (the exact same as a standard heavy motorcycle license) and it pretty much became pointless to even bother getting such a license. Also I think back in 2023 or so they made it so anyone that got a car license after that point can no longer use it to ride a light motorcycle so people getting a car license after the change will likely just go straight to the standard license and get a white plate bike.
Besides electric scooters there are no new green plate scooters being made in Taiwan. The green plate Gogoros are probably the one’s you’ll see the most these days.