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Taipei promotes school parking plan, but schools wary

The Taipei City Government will open about 50 percent of the parking spaces in its municipal schools and some of the parking in government office buildings to the public overnight, starting this fall.

The parking program will begin in September and the government office building plan the following month, creating space for 8,000 cars and motorcycles, the Taipei Parking Management Office said yesterday.

The office said it would inspect the environment in municipal schools over the summer vacation to determine the number of schools that would be able to open their parking lots to the public.

PARKING PROPOSAL

School parking lots will be open for public parking from 6pm to 8am, while parking lots in government organizations will be open from 7pm to 7am, the office said. Parking fees will be similar to those of public parking lots, although discounts may be given to students, school staff and community members.

While Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) has given his full support to the policy, the city's Department of Education has raised several safety concerns about opening schools up to the public.

SCHOOLS CONCERNED

"The department tested the policy in nine municipal schools in 1995, but failed to receive a positive response because of safety concerns from schools," the department's chief secretary, Tang Te-chih (唐德智), said yesterday during a municipal meeting at Taipei City Hall.

Residents did not think it was convenient, either," he said.

Tang said the department required the parking spaces be rented on a monthly basis and those who wanted spaces had to submit an application so that the schools could keep track of who was using the parking lots.

The application process proved to be a turn off for many would-be parkers.

The Taipei Parking Management Office said that the safety concerns raised by the schools could be remedied by setting up more surveillance cameras.

Hau said the city government would form a team to resolve the issues and seek to implement the policy according to schedule.
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