Cyclists in Taipei City who park their bicycles on sidewalks or porches illegally could have their bicycles towed starting next week, as Taipei City Government is stepping up efforts to address illegal bicycle parking across the city.
The Police Department’s Traffic Division will start towing illegally parked bicycles around MRT Technology Building Station next week after the plan was formally approved by Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) on Tuesday last week.
Fang Yang-ning (方仰寧), director of the division, said the Department of Transportation began drafting the plan last year to address growing complaints about bicycles illegally parked around MRT stations and on sidewalks across the city.
To avoid disputes, officers from the division will take a photo of illegally parked bicycles before cutting the locks and towing them, Fang said. The owners could be required to pay a towing fee of about NT$100 and face a fine between NT$300 and NT$600.
While there are no registration numbers on bicycles, Fang said the division would ask cyclists to bring IDs when claiming the bicycles. Another measure to prevent towed bicycles being falsely claimed would involve requiring owners to have a picture taken with their bicycles and sign a form, Fang said.
If more than one person showed up to claim a towed bicycle, police would look into the case and charge the bogus claimant with larceny and invasion of property.
“We are happy to see more and more people using bicycles as transportation tools, but we need to address the issue of illegal bicycle parking and do a better job on bicycle management,” he said.
If the plan is successful, the division intends to expand bicycle towing to areas around other major MRT stations including Gongguan and Taipei City Hall stations.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
RSS