Scooterists and unionists staged a rally in Taipei's Ximending shopping district yesterday to protest a city government plan to increase the number of paid scooter parking spaces.
In order to better manage scooter parking, the city government plans to begin charging a NT$20 parking fee on each scooter parked in the Ximending area starting next month. More paid scooter parking would soon follow.
"Scooter parking is a mess in Ximending, and we do need some management," Ko I-min (
Ko said that giving out parking tickets and towing enforcement may be good ways to keep scooter parking in order, "but I don't understand why they [the city] decided to just charge parking fees instead."
"If you just charge for parking in parking spaces and don't give out tickets, people will just park illegally -- so what's the point?" a city parking fee collector who joined the protest said.
Some worried that the scooter parking fee may increase the economic burden for many low-income people.
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