Plans to establish a system of Taipei tour buses were sent back to the drawing board by Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday.
He made the call after hearing a report on the Department of Information and Tourism’s plans at the city government’s monthly transportation meeting.
“This is clearly a plan written by a civil servant — while it ‘digests’ the funds available, the results would be poor,” Ko said.
Ko said that, while he “whole-heartedly” supported the idea of Taipei tour buses, the department’s plan was currently “immature” and “full of holes.”
Ko criticized the plans for the tour bus route for including a number of stops at night markets, but providing service only until 7:30pm, stating that separate day and night services should be planned.
He also said separate tour buses should be arranged for tourists speaking different languages.
He called it “strange” to require operators to rent city buses for six months before imported double-decker buses can be put into service.
The department’s plans drew criticism from city government adviser Lawrence Lan (藍武王) at the meeting, with Lan calling them “doomed to fail,” because they did not make adequate use of the opinions of bus firms.
Rather than the city designing the tour bus route and paying out subsidies, it should instead allow firms to bid for tour bus contracts, allowing them to design their own routes, he said.
He also called on the city government to establish a single send-off “consolidation center,” from which international tourists could depart for tours.
Meanwhile, Department of Transportation Commissioner Chung Hui-yu (鐘慧諭) said that the city would consider charging parking fees for scooters.
She said managing scooters was a major problem facing the city, with scooters responsible for a disproportionate number of traffic accidents and deaths, as well as being a leading cause of noise pollution.
Even as the city’s overall traffic level has fallen with the development of the MRT system, the number of scooters has continued to increase, she said.
She said scooters remain attractive to city residents because of their convenience and also because they are considerably cheaper than cars, allowing users to save on fuel and parking fees.
She added that, while in theory scooters should be required to pay for usage of public parking spaces just like cars, in practice, more than 99 percent of scooter parking spaces are free.
She said that the city government was drafting a plan to “manage” scooters, including the possible introduction of parking fees.
She said that specific policies were still being researched and the city government would have to consult scooter drivers before any possible changes would be finalized.
Chung’s remarks drew a strong response from Democratic Progressive Party Taipei City Councilor Lee Ching-feng (李慶峰) who urged the city to “carefully consider” any changes to avoid disadvantaging poorer city residents.
He said poorer residents rely more heavily on scooters for transportation than other groups.
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