In addition to the cleaning and maintenance of expressways inthe eight administrative districts in downtown Taichung, the Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) has begun to dispatch the road sweeper trucks to clean the optimal bus exclusive lane on Taiwan Boulevard during the late-night hours from 2:00 to 6:00 every night since July 8. The EPB asks those early risers to be patient with the slow movements of the road sweeper trucks whose speed is less than 20 km per hour.

For safety and efficiency reasons, the road sweeper trucks are used to sweep the 554 km of roads with traffic islands in the center. Among them, the 64-kilometer-long Taiwan Boulevard has the heaviest traffic flow and produces 350 kilograms of garbage on the average every day, or about 5.7 kg of waste (including dust) per kilometer. In fact, garbage is also littered on the traffic islands and inside the bus shelters of the expressways or the exclusive lane of Taiwan Boulevard. To handle such garbage, the EPB has to send its cleaning staff to inspect and collect it on a regular basis. Many tree branches along the Taiwan Boulevard were seriously torn down by Typhoon Soudelor hitting Taiwan on August 8. The EPB helped restore the traffic flow son the optimal bus exclusive lane of Taiwan Boulevard on the afternoon of August 8 and completed the cleaning and maintenance of Taiwan Boulevard within three days after the typhoon disaster.

The EPB called on people to help keep the roads safe, smooth, and beautiful. “Each and every one of you plays an important role in keeping the environmental quality and turning Taichung City into a low-carbon, sustainable, high-tech, and cultural city,” said the EPB.