Riders of heavy motorcycles are planning to request an interpretation from the Council of Grand Justices on whether the regulations set by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) allow heavy motorcycles to access all freeways.
Heavy motorcycle riders are only allowed to access expressways and National Freeway No. 3A, despite an amendment to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例) in 2010 that allowed them to ride on freeways at sections and times determined by the ministry.
Dissatisfied with the ministry’s delay in enforcing the amendment, motorcyclists rode on the freeways and rallied on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei on July 1, asking the government to unconditionally open all freeways to motorcycles with engine displacements of more than 550cc.
The Highway Police handed out 45 traffic tickets to the motorcyclists riding on the freeways that day.
Following the protest, the National Freeway Bureau said an independent ad hoc team is to be formed to evaluate the riders’ behavior for one year, adding that the riders would be evaluated by the number of fatal accidents caused by the riders and the number of traffic violations and illegal acts committed by motorcyclists as reported by the police.
The illegal acts would include swerving in and out of traffic, overtaking other vehicles or changing lanes without following proper procedures, and riding beside another vehicle in the same lane, the bureau said.
The team would also monitor the riders from the surveillance cameras installed along Freeway No. 3A and Highway No. 64 from this month until June 30 next year, the bureau said, adding that a trial for motorcyclists to access freeways could be launched in October next year if they meet all standards set by the team.
Motorcyclists’ right to access the freeways could also be withdrawn if the number of traffic violations committed and accidents caused by the motorcycle riders increase, the bureau said.
Ride On Highway, the group that organized the rally in Taipei, on Saturday wrote on Facebook that it has found an attorney to present its case to the grand justices and is hoping to raise NT$1.2 million (US$39,528) to pay for the legal fees.
The group also filed an administrative lawsuit to appeal the traffic tickets issued to the motorcyclists.
The group said the ministry’s actions were unconstitutional.
“The ministry can stipulate indicators in its evaluations of the motorcyclists, but the indicators should be used only to correct wrong behaviors. The ministry should not use them to determine if motorcyclists should be banned from entering freeways or that their right to access freeways should be withdrawn,” the group said, adding that the ministry cannot deprive motorcyclists of their rights and freedoms because of a few misbehaving people.
The group said it has used all means possible to make its cause known in the past six years and there is no other way forward except filing administrative lawsuits.
It also defended its call for motorcyclists to disobey the rules and to access freeways on July 1, saying that it was a necessary step to take in the legal system.
“We know we will definitely lose these lawsuits, but we can only request a constitutional interpretation after we have exhausted all available judicial means. That is how the system works,” the group said.
Its request for a constitutional interpretation could be submitted by the end of this year, the group said.
If the grand justices decide what the MOTC did was unconstitutional, motorcyclists would not need to pay the fines and could get back fees they paid to have their motorcycles towed, it said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching