Few people make use of public transport, a survey by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) showed, with ridership on the nation’s public transportation system hovering at just 13 percent.
The survey, conducted between Oct. 6 and Dec. 18 last year, showed that a majority of respondents preferred to drive a car or scooter when traveling. Of the 24,943 valid samples collected, 49 percent said they ride scooters, while 23 percent said they drive cars.
More women make use of public transportation at 17 percent, compared with men, with only 9.9 percent doing so.
When asked why they did not use public transport, respondents cited “inconvenience” as the No. 1 reason. “Living far from the nearest station or stop” and “living close to the destination” were the second and third main reasons.
The survey also found that Taipei City topped other cities and counties in terms of public transportation use, scoring a high 34 percent. It was followed by Keelung City, Taipei County and Taoyuan County, with utilization rates reaching 29.4 percent, 24.9 percent and 11.9 percent respectively.
Those that scored below 5 percent included Hualien County, Penghu County, Taitung County, Tainan City, Chiayi County and Yunlin County. Chiayi City ranked last with only 2.5 percent.
The findings, released on Thursday, came two days after MOTC Minister Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said the ministry was budgeting NT$15 billion (US$467 million) on a three-year project to improve the public transportation system nationwide.
Last month, the ministry rejected plans from several counties to build MRT or light-rail systems. Mao said the ministry would continue to use strict standards to evaluate each proposal.
“The government has to be responsible for the operation of railway systems,” Mao said at the time. “Billions in losses will soon occur if the railway system does not carry sufficient passengers to sustain its operation.”
Rather than subsidizing the debt-ridden railway system, Mao said the subsidy would be put to better use developing the public bus system.
He said many places still lacked a good “public transportation system,” adding that what they need is a “public” and not “mass” transportation system. The two are different modes of transportation, he said.
Chi Wen-chung (祁文中), director-general of the ministry’s Department of Railways and Highways, said NT$4.5 billion would be allocated for the first-year of the project. About NT$2 billion will be used to subsidize the bus routes in remote areas and as cross-subsidies for different transportation systems.
He added that the rest of the budget would be spent on specific projects, such as developing “door-to-door” networks from the high speed rail stations and Taiwan Railway Administration stations, he said.
In other news, Kaohsiung City’s Transportation Bureau announced that passengers taking taxis in the city during the Lunar New Year holidays will be charged an additional NT$50.
The measure will apply from Feb. 12 — one day before the Lunar New Year holidays begin — to Feb. 18, the bureau said.
Free bus rides will be provided from Feb. 13 to Feb. 18, the bureau said, adding that residents and visitors to the city could also use the city’s public bikes for free during the holidays.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods