A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker yesterday urged the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to set a ceiling on the number of traffic contraventions members of the public can report per day.
At a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Transportation Committee, DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) said that in New Taipei City, two people each reported 8,000 traffic infringements in a year.
Another Taipei resident reported 7,779 traffic contraventions in a year, she said.
Some of the reports did not have definite proof and at best offered unclear photographs, Yeh said.
While people are not required to verify the information or provide formal written reports when reporting traffic infringements, police officers must review all of them, she said, adding that due to the huge number of reports police departments are receiving, every Taipei police officer must review 6,000 such reports on average.
One officer even developed macular degeneration after spending long periods handling such reports and had to leave his section, Yeh said.
Much of the evidence collected for the reports involves car drivers being stalked, which is an invasion of their privacy, she said, adding that even police officers cannot collect evidence for traffic contraventions in that manner.
Most of the reported cases are about illegal parking, running a red light or crossing double white lines, Yeh said.
Considering those infringements do not cause immediate danger to the public, but affect police officer’s work, the ministry should set a ceiling on the number of traffic contraventions a person can report per day, she said.
For example, it could limit reports to one per day per person, Yeh said.
Department of Railways and Highways Director-General Chen Wen-juei (陳文瑞) said that the government had designed the reporting system hoping that reports from the public would help the police.
In the past few years, traffic reports from the public have increased in number, he said, adding that if the reported infringements are mild, police officers do not have to handle them.
The ministry would discuss with the National Police Agency how to best handle the high number of traffic reports, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said.
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
The first global hotel Keys Selection by the Michelin Guide includes four hotels in Taiwan, Michelin announced yesterday. All four received the “Michelin One Key,” indicating guests are to experience a “very special stay” at any of the locations as the establishments are “a true gem with personality. Service always goes the extra mile, and the hotel provides much more than others in its price range.” Of the four hotels, three are located in Taipei and one in Taichung. In Taipei, the One Key accolades were awarded to the Capella Taipei, Kimpton Da An Taipei and Mandarin Oriental Taipei. Capella Taipei was described by
Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) yesterday said that private-sector refiners are willing to stop buying Russian naphtha should the EU ask them to, after a group of non-governmental organizations, including the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), criticized the nation’s continued business with the country. While Taiwan joined the US and its Western allies in putting broad sanctions on Russia after it invaded Ukraine in 2022, it did not explicitly ban imports of naphtha, a major hard-currency earner for Russia. While state-owned firms stopped importing Russian oil in 2023, there is no restriction on private companies to
INDUSTRY: Beijing’s latest export measures go beyond targeting the US and would likely affect any country that uses Chinese rare earths or related tech, an academic said Taiwanese industries could face significant disruption from China’s newly tightened export controls on rare earth elements, as much of Taiwan’s supply indirectly depends on Chinese materials processed in Japan, a local expert said yesterday. Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈), director of the Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, said that China’s latest export measures go far beyond targeting the US and would likely affect any country that uses Chinese rare earths or related technologies. With Japan and Southeast Asian countries among those expected to be hit, Taiwan could feel the impact through its reliance on Japanese-made semi-finished products and
RSS