Bus lanes in Taipei City's Roosevelt Road have had the opposite effect of that intended and are making traffic worse on the thoroughfare, the mayor said yesterday, adding that he is considering closing the lanes.
The bus lanes were created last March to ease the heavy traffic around Gongguan (
Acknowledging that residents have responded negatively to the lanes, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (
The city government will consider closing the lanes if the department fails to present fruitful results by then, he added.
"The lanes did help to improve the speed of buses, but the public's experience and feelings should be considered as well. I will make a point of experiencing the traffic situation during rush hour once in a while," Hau said during an inspection tour in Gongguan.
Roosevelt Road was the ninth road in Taipei to be given exclusive bus lanes, an initiative launched under the administration of former Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
However, the design of the lanes, which occupy two of the road's five lanes, has contributed to worsening jams in the area.
"It's not helpful at all. The buses do not run faster, and we have to walk across the street to take the bus now," a bus passenger, who declined to give her name, complained to Hau at a bus stop.
The department offered its apologies for the inconvenience, but defended its policy.
According to a survey the department conducted among residents living nearby, 52.5 percent of respondents agreed with the policy, while 39.5 percent disagreed. More than 46 percent of respondents said they were not satisfied with the rush hour traffic, the survey said.
The department said it will adjust bus routes and assign more police to traffic control duties during peak hours to improve the situation.
City councilors and borough chiefs, however, urged Hau and the department to learn a lesson and stop making impractical plans.
"The bottleneck is the underpass [at the intersection of Keelung Road and Roosevelt Road], which makes it easy for cars to get stuck in the narrow lanes," said Chang Hung-mu (張紅木), a borough warden in Wenshan District (文山).
New Party City Councilor Lee Chin-yuan (
Because Roosevelt Road's bus lanes have come under heavy criticism, Hau said the government would also examine the necessity of planned bus lanes on Zhongxiao E Road and Zhongxiao W Road.
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