The Taipei City Government’s plan to build a light-rail system from Xinyi District (信義) to Neihu District (內湖) would not solve Neihu’s traffic problems and is wholly unnecessary, Taipei City Government policy adviser Ben Jai (翟本喬) said.
In a Facebook post, Jai said Neihu’s traffic congestion is actually a housing problem, because so many people commute to and from the area to work, but few live there.
The proposed light-rail system would only help commuting workers make fewer transfers and does little to address the issue around Neihu’s traffic congestion, Jai said.
The Taipei Department of Transportation has suggested an expansion of the Chengmei Bridge (成美橋) and downsizing traffic islands to alleviate traffic, but these efforts only “scraped the surface” of Neihu’s problems, Jai said.
“By the time the Neihu Technology Park Upgrade Initiative is completed, more people will be working there and the traffic is going to be terrible,” he said.
Jai said that what Neihu needs is “tech housing,” with units ranging from 3 to 5 ping (9.9m2 to 16.5m2) leased out by the city government to people who work in the technology hub.
Jai said Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has flip-flopped on decisionmaking, adding that Ko agreed that Neihu’s traffic congestion stemmed from accommodation problems, but that he “seemed to have forgotten his own comments.”
Former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) on Friday also spoke out against the light-rail plan, saying that he proposed the idea during his mayoral term and it was found it to be “somewhat unnecessary” after a viability assessment.
He advised Ko to refer to research conducted by the former administration.
However, Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems deputy commissioner Chang Ze-hsiung (張澤雄) said the department expects to start accepting consultancy firms tenders before July for a new viability assessment for the proposed system.
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