【Kaohsiung News】In recent years, the Transportation Bureau has promoted the installation of auxiliary left-turn lanes, which have reduced left-turn side-collision crashes by 17.2 percent. In addition to improving safety, these measures have also addressed the issue of a single left-turning vehicle blocking dozens of through-moving vehicles. However, due to maintenance challenges such as the reappearance of old markings after grinding and repainting, full roadway resurfacing has been identified as the best opportunity to resolve these issues comprehensively. Recently, the Kaohsiung City Government Transportation Bureau and Public Works Bureau have collaborated not only to resurface major urban arterials with new asphalt, but also to seize the opportunity to comprehensively “reorganize roadway logic,” implementing systematic adjustments from lane configuration to pedestrian safety.
This round of pavement milling and resurfacing works on major arterial roads, including Jhongshan Road, Jhonghua Road, Jiouru Road, and Meishu East 2nd Road, is scheduled to be completed in phases by the end of Year 114 (2025). The Transportation Bureau and the Public Works Bureau are jointly carrying out pavement marking upgrades. The first focus is lane configuration optimization, ensuring that through traffic no longer queues unnecessarily. Taking corridors such as Jhonghua 3rd Road and Jhongshan 2nd Road as examples, auxiliary left-turn lanes are added through a “lane slimming” approach, accommodating left-turning vehicles within dedicated areas while allowing through traffic to proceed smoothly in continuous lanes. This enables traffic flows to be properly separated according to their respective movements and better aligns with modern traffic operations principles.
The second focus is to set crosswalks back by one step, advancing pedestrian safety by one step. By moderately setting back crosswalk locations and adjusting the angle of ladder-style markings, drivers are able to directly see pedestrians before entering intersections. These seemingly subtle positional shifts and marking adjustments can significantly reduce blind-spot risks when vehicles are turning. In addition, with the provision of protected left-turn signal phases, pedestrian crossing time is separated from left-turn traffic through temporal segregation, further reducing conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians.
This initiative goes beyond simple road resurfacing; it represents a comprehensive upgrade encompassing pavement markings, roadway geometry, and traffic flow logic. The City Government also extends its appreciation to citizens for their understanding and cooperation during construction. With smoother and more intuitive pavement markings, road users can more easily comprehend the driving environment, and such improvements are being realized step by step across Kaohsiung.
