A friend of mine who lives and works in Taipei has used the city's buses and sings the praises of the MRT system. But she prefers to go to work by scooter. She would happily take a bus, but for the five-minute walk at either end. Getting from the stop to her office is a trek along a broken, uneven sidewalk, during which she has to dodge scooters zipping back and forth in search of a place to park.
My friend is not lazy; on some weekends she goes hiking in Yangmingshan National Park. It's just that, like a great many people, she'd rather not walk any distance in this city. I know exactly what she means: to get to the bus stop I use each morning, I must either use the sidewalk -- taking care not to stumble over a hole or be hit by a scooter -- or walk through the backstreets, where there are no sidewalks, but plenty of fast-moving vehicles.
Every day I pass parked cars whose engines have been left running while their owners sleep, read the newspaper or run an errand. Japanese environmentalists have run "stop idling" campaigns, apparently with some success. Their Taiwanese counterparts should follow suit. If fewer parked cars spewed exhaust directly onto the sidewalk, more people might be inclined to walk.
To give credit where it's due, the Taipei City Government has begun to tackle the problem of scooters using the sidewalks by providing parking places accessible only from the road.
But in many places no sidewalks exist, or if they do, they have been appropriated by shopkeepers who pile so many goods in front of their stores that pedestrians are forced to take their chances in the road. Getting from north of Civil Boulevard to Taipei Railway Station is much more pleasant now that the underground Easy Mall is open. But compared to Hong Kong's Central district, which is criss-crossed by elevators, moving sidewalks and elevated, covered walkways, Taipei has a long way to go.
The benefits of making the city more walkable are obvious: less traffic, better air quality, less noise and a healthier population. If people actually walked the streets, they would perhaps feel they have a stake in the city. And they might begin to see the city as a spatially continuous entity, rather than an archipelago of destinations -- home, office and school.
Throughout the island, city governments are spending a lot of money on road widening programs and new car parks. Some of this is justified, but both central and local governments should see to it that more resources are devoted to renewing a pedestrian culture.
Steven Crook
Taipei
Rights for clubbers
To watch the TV news would lead one to believe that Taipei is now awash in drugs, in particular ecstasy. Nightly there are reports of busts at nightclubs, followed by cops or officials vowing a crackdown.
The intention of all this is fine, since Taipei would be a better place without drugs. But for the non-drug abusing person like myself who frequently goes to nightclubs, being subjected to a urine test for what police call a pretextual search (one based on the slightest possible evidence), these police efforts can be a nuisance.
What are the legalities of police effectively shutting down a legitimate business? And what are people's rights when demanded to take a urine test? And lastly, is Mayor Ma Ying-jeou
Tommy Wu
Taipei
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Former minister of culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) has long wielded influence through the power of words. Her articles once served as a moral compass for a society in transition. However, as her April 1 guest article in the New York Times, “The Clock Is Ticking for Taiwan,” makes all too clear, even celebrated prose can mislead when romanticism clouds political judgement. Lung crafts a narrative that is less an analysis of Taiwan’s geopolitical reality than an exercise in wistful nostalgia. As political scientists and international relations academics, we believe it is crucial to correct the misconceptions embedded in her article,
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