Most bus shelters are constructed facing the road, which makes it convenient for passengers to get on and off the bus when it comes. A member of the public reported a bus shelter on Jhongshan Road opposite the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Taoyuan General Hospital, where the shelter and the bench have been installed back to front.
A reporter went to look and discovered that there is not only one backward-facing shelter. The bus shelters at the nearby Longshou Street and Mingguang Community bus stops both face backwards, so people are forced to wait with their backs to the road, and if they are not careful they will miss their bus. Many people find that they may as well stand up to wait, so the bus shelter usage rate is low.
Some people complain that sometimes they sit in the bus shelter looking at their cell phones and, because they have their backs to the road, if they are not careful they will not see the bus arriving and they will miss it. If the shelters were not back to front, even if they had their heads down looking at their phones, they would still notice from the corner of their eyes that a bus has come into the bus stop. People also say that because the bus shelters are back to front, the glass, which is supposed to stop the rain, makes it inconvenient to get on and off the bus or stick out their arms to flag the bus down.
Photo: Chiu Yi-tung, Taipei Times
照片:自由時報記者邱奕統
Many people rely on the bus to get around and yet there is this sort of bad workmanship, which has been like this for eight years, causing difficulties for people. Missing the bus makes people waste their time and no one will take responsibility if they miss a really important appointment.
The Taoyuan Department of Transportation says that because these bus shelters have been there for a long time, it is now not possible to find out why they were designed this way. Although the department would like to improve things, the bus shelters are constructed out of steel, and they have to be used for 30 years before they can be changed. The transport department said it would work with the Department of Finance to work out how to solve the problem and would fix the bus shelters as soon as possible by turning them the right way round.
(Liberty Times, translated by Clare Lear)
一般公車候車亭都是面對馬路,方便候車民眾在公車抵站時上下車。但有民眾反映,桃園區中山路上衛福部桃園醫院對面的候車亭,不論屋簷或是椅子,都是背對馬路,明顯裝反。
記者昨天實際走訪,發現裝反的候車亭不只一座,附近的龍壽街口站、明光社區站也都裝反。民眾被迫背對馬路候車,一不小心就錯過公車。不少人乾脆站著等,讓候車亭使用率偏低。
有市民抱怨,有時候等車時會坐在椅子上滑手機,因為背對馬路,一不小心就無法察覺公車進站,導致錯過公車;如果沒裝反,即便低著頭,眼角餘光仍能察覺公車進站。民眾也說,候車亭因為裝反,椅子後方原本設計用來擋雨的玻璃,不僅擋住了上下公車的動線,也造成伸手攔車的不便。
蘇家明表示,許多民眾仰賴公車通勤,結果卻有這樣的錯誤工程,還一錯錯八年,讓民眾十分困擾,非常不應該。錯過公車造成民眾時間浪費,萬一延誤到重要行程,誰來補償?
交通局表示,這幾處候車亭因時間久遠,無法查出當初設計的緣由,雖然想要改善,但候車亭採鋼骨結構,需使用三十年才能變更,將與財政局研議如何解決,儘快改善候車亭,轉回正確位置。
(自由時報記者邱奕統)
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