As the arrival of Taoyuan County’s upgrade to special municipality is imminent, many Taoyuan City residents remain critical of the poor quality of county roads and say that traffic also remains laggard. Although you can pretty much always see some sort of illegal behavior going on along the streets of the city’s landmark special art and culture district, often creating traffic jams in the area, you almost never see police issuing tickets to anyone. The Taoyuan County Police Bureau says that it frequently enforces the law and will be working harder to clamp down on violators.
Local residents have filed complaints about many of the city’s roads being uneven and difficult to drive on and that people often break traffic laws and park illegally. Serious traffic violations, including people double parked in traffic lanes next to parked cars along the side of roads are common, especially in areas where traffic is heavy along Chunrih, Chingkuo and Chungcheng roads. You never see police enforcing the law or trying to remove illegally parked vehicles, which only makes traffic worse, residents say. Also exacerbating traffic in the area are the many street vendors who set up stalls occupying the streets, which police turn a blind eye to, residents say.
The residents who made the complaints also said that the most serious traffic violations can be seen in the city’s special art and culture district, including sections of Chungcheng Rd, Nanping Rd, Sinpu 8th St and Chuangyi St. For a long time street vendors have occupied public parking spaces in the area. Sometimes the vendors actually drive off people who try to park in the spaces and some vendors simply occupy sidewalks and set up stalls in front of fire hydrants at intersections. Shoppers passing by in cars park temporarily in the middle of the street at will, seriously affecting traffic and causing concern that rescue workers would be blocked off during disasters.
Photo: Chiu Yi-tung, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者邱奕統
Residents also say that they have notified the police on several occasions and called the county government hotline, but the situation has not improved and police have never been seen issuing tickets or trying to remove the vendors, making people from other counties and cities aware of how inept the legal system is in Taoyuan County.
In response, the police bureau says that police always work to catch people breaking the law. Sometimes, however, after issuing a ticket and driving off offenders, vendors who have been caught breaking the law return to continue business as usual immediately after they see the police leave, the bureau says, adding that having a limited police force keeps them from having officers constantly staying in one place to enforce the law, but that officers will be dispatched to help catch violators.
(Liberty Times, Translated by Kyle Jeffcoat)
桃園縣升格在即,多名桃園市民抨擊縣內不僅道路品質沒跟上,交通也落後許多,市區指標的藝文特區街頭上隨時可見違規行為,常造成塞車,卻總不見警方取締。桃園警分局表示,警方已經常執行取締,將加強取締。
民眾投訴說,市區許多道路本就不平難行,卻常見民眾不遵守交通規則,違規停車,人車較多的春日路、經國路與中正路等路段,還可常見占據車道並排停車的嚴重違規,卻不見警方取締驅離,導致塞車更為嚴重,且許多違規攤商也陸續占據街頭營業,但警方同樣視若無睹,讓交通更加難行。
投訴市民說,違規情形尤其以藝文特區最為嚴重,中正、南平、新埔八街、莊一街等路段,長期有攤商霸占公有停車格營業,民眾要停車,甚至還遭到攤商驅趕,更有攤販乾脆占據人行道,直接在路口、消防栓前設攤,路過消費的車輛也隨意臨停,嚴重影響交通,也有阻礙災害搶救的疑慮。
民眾說,已經向警方檢舉多次,也曾打縣民專線陳情,但情況依舊,沒見警方取締、驅離,讓他縣市民眾見識到桃園縣的法治低落。
對此,桃園警分局表示,只要是違規行為警方都會取締,但有時開單告發驅離了,違規攤商眼見警方離去,常又返回繼續營業,因警力實在有限,不可能全天駐守取締,未來會增派警力,加強取締。
(自由時報記者邱奕統)
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