Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilors yesterday accused the Taipei City Government of unfairly targeting scooter drivers by issuing more than 340,000 tickets last year for illegal parking and urged an increase in the number of parking spaces for scooters.
Expanding sidewalk space to create a friendlier environment for pedestrians has been one of the city government’s key policies, but it has also resulted in a reduction in the number of parking spaces for scooters.
Tickets given to the city’s scooter drivers continued to rise even as the number of parking spaces fell. The city received NT$120 million (US$4.1 million) from the 340,000 tickets it issued to scooter drivers last year.
The areas where most tickets were issued included Zhongxiao E Road Sec 4, Changan W Road, Minsheng W Road and Zhongshan N Road Sec 2, statistics from Taipei City’s Department of Transportation showed.
“We support the city government’s efforts to create a better environment for pedestrians, but scooter drivers should not pay the price for the plan,” DPP Taipei City Councilor Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) said at the Taipei City Council.
The DPP’s Chou Wei-you (周威佑) also criticized the city government for failing to offer enough parking space for scooters as a supplementary measure, and asked the department to do so as soon as possible.
The department eliminated more than 2,900 parking spaces for scooters on sidewalks along Zhongxiao E Rd Sec 4, but only added 2,700 in the area, Chou said.
“Scooters are a major means of transportation in the city and rather than reducing the number of parking spaces available, the department should make more effort to protect their rights,” he added.
Department Commissioner Jason Lin (林志盈) acknowledged the shortfall of scooter parking spaces around the city and said efforts would be made to rectify the situation.
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