Taichung 17th Slowest City in the World 荷商公布全球塞車指數 台中第17全台最慢

Taichung City has been ranked the “slowest city in Taiwan,” according to GPS device manufacturer TomTom, with typical speed at just 22 kilometers per hour.

Taichung residents are sick of traffic congestion, which has become a way of life.

Mr. Lin, Resident: “I just got off the interchange and now I'm stuck in traffic.”

Mr. Chen, Taxi Driver: “It took us 40 minutes to get from Ikea on Xiangshang Road to Liming Road. There's no way to cross Taiwan Boulevard.”

According to the TomTom Traffic index, which looked at data from 389 cities in 56 countries, London is the slowest city in the world and Taichung is the slowest city in Taiwan, requiring 24 minutes and 40 seconds to drive 10 kilometers and reporting an average driving speed of just 22 kilometers per hour.

Experts say Taichung desperately needs a wider public transportation network and better traffic signaling efficiency during rush hour.

Lee Ke-tsung, Convener, Transportation Committee, Consumers' Foundation: “In the absence of public transport or low-coverage public transport, the traffic volume goes up. This leads to congestion. Another area that needs improvement is more efficient traffic signal design.”

Lee Kuan-lin, Chief, Transportation Planning Div., Transportation Bureau, Taichung: “Given Taichung's rapid development, traffic volume and congestion have become problems. It also shows the necessity of its MRT system.”

The city government says the data is evidence of Taichung's rapid development and it will continue developing its MRT system.

車輛一台接一台，移動速度相當緩慢。只要到了上班時間，台中市區主要幹道都是這番場景。行車龜速、通勤時間拉長，是許多台中民眾共同的生活經驗。

民眾林先生說：「你像我剛剛從交流道下來，啊，就塞車了。」

計程車司機陳先生表示：「向上路IKEA那邊，我要過來黎明路這邊，天橋下面這邊開了40分鐘，就是沒辦法過台灣大道。」

荷蘭衛星定位GPS製造商，公布最新全球塞車指數，總共調查56個國家、389個城市的塞車狀況。英國倫敦為行車速度最慢城市的榜首，台中市名列第17，成為台灣唯一進入前20名榜單的城市，開車平均每10公里要花上24分40秒，平均時速只有22公里。學者認為，台中公共運輸不普及、尖峰時段號誌設計不當，造成走走停停，是主要原因。

消基會交通委員會召集人李克聰指出：「公共運輸不普及的情況下、路網不完整的情況下，交通量使用汽機車的量就會大，交通量大的情況下就容易塞車。它的號誌怎麼樣來做比較有效率的設計，這個也有改善的空間。」

台中市交通局交通規劃科股長李冠霖表示：「從該公司統計資料，也間接顯示台中地區蓬勃發展，吸引大量車流而衍生塞車問題，更凸顯了台中捷運興建的必要性。」

台中市府表示，這項統計數據間接顯示台中蓬勃發展，吸引大量車流衍生塞車問題，後續會持續推動捷運建設，改善交通問題。