Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday ordered the capital’s Department of Transportation to address accident and traffic jam “hot spots,” in addition to existing work on illegal parking hot spots.
He made his remarks during the city government’s monthly traffic report.
Department Commissioner Chung Hui-yu (鐘慧諭) said that traffic jams would be difficult to address by focusing on hot spots, because the road network is largely fixed.
Department officials also said that, because traffic deaths showed patterns of randomness, it would be difficult to achieve reductions by targeting hot spots.
Ko also expressed dissatisfaction with progress in addressing illegal parking hot spots, saying that if he did not see improvement by the end of the year, he would “settle accounts” with Chung.
“We recently began adding parking spaces, but the result is that cars have gone into alleyways instead,” Ko said.
Department officials said that the problem would clear up as soon as fees are charged for alleyway parking spaces later this year.
The city government is to begin charging parking fees for all city parking spaces, starting with major roads.
Department officials said addressing illegal parking was difficult, because it was concentrated in residential areas, drawing an incredulous response from Ko.
“What is so difficult about fining them?” he said.
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