bothered to vote for come election time. For someone who cares? Or someone who wants to have their photograph taken?"
It's not just local residents who have been offended by the over-politicization of the issue. Former Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南), who is currently running for the office of Ilan County Magistrate, was dismayed as to how politicized the issue had become.
"The road was, and is meant to be for the people, but since certain politicians have gotten involved it has become far too political an issue to benefit anybody," Chen said. "I think that what happened is a fine example of just how easy it is to twist issues to suit one's needs. If the needs are votes, then sadly people like Lu Kuo-hua (呂國華) will, I'm afraid, continue to exploit the issue."
Traffic can now officially use the road, but the numbers are officially limited to 4,000 cars per day -- buses and trucks are still banned from using the ramp.
As for who's counting, well, that appears to be another matter entirely.
A report that appeared in a local Chinese-language paper last week said that on one day over 10,000 cars made use of the Pinglin interchange. When the Taipei Times visited the spot last week and inquired as to who counts the cars we were informed by a rather beleaguered security guard manning a checkpoint "it's not my job to count cars" and that "the job was done at the Pinglin Interchange Administration building."
Enquiries at the administration center in regard the counting of cars led to another dead end. We were told by another security guard, "There's nobody in the building."
So it seems that three years of bickering both for and against the opening of the Pinglin interchange boils down to the simple fact that, with the exception of vote-hungry politicians, nobody really seems to care who uses the road and who doesn't.
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