It's 8am and the weather is perfect. An old man decides to take the bus to the Government Employees Insurance (GEI) clinic to pick up some medicine. He gets on the bus, where the four priority seats are already occupied, all by elderly people about the same age as he is. They are also going to see a doctor -- many old people take this bus since it stops in front of both Taiwan University Hospital and the GEI Building.
A student sitting toward the back of the bus leaves his seat to let the old man sit down. Although it is nice to sit down, sitting too far back in the bus has the man worried that he will not have time to make it off the bus at his stop.
When he arrives at his destination, the old man inserts the bus ticket in the ticket reading machine, his hands shaking slightly. The machine spits it back at him with a beep indicating that it couldn't read the ticket. Not understanding why, the old man inserts the ticket again. This time it works. While he gets off the bus, unsteadily, the bus driver waits patiently, thinking to himself that it takes this old man three times as long to get off the bus as it takes a young person.
Luckily, these days there are designated bus lanes, and bus speeds are limited to 40kph. The student is even in a bit of a rush, he has to be behind his school desk by 9am.
Once off the bus, the old man has to cross the street, but seeing that the counter shows only 20 seconds remaining before the light turns red, he reckons he won't make it in time and decides to wait for the next green light. Students and people on their way to work fly past, walking faster as the number of seconds on the meter decreases. Cars and scooters on both sides of the crossing rush forward as soon as the light changes -- time is money.
Thirty years from now, when the middle-aged people rushing along the streets have grown old, they will know that time is dignity.
During the last decade of the 20th century, Internet technology pushed globalization to new heights, and the information highway served to explain the relationship between time, space and efficiency. Specialists on space planning and media scholars began to explore the impact of the omnipresent Internet technology on time and space. However, as the speed of human civilization increases, we have forgotten that an ageing population will bring a need for more time into every aspect of our lives.
A person can refuse to enter the territory of the Internet Republic, but he cannot refuse old age. The proportion of Taiwan's population over the age of 65 is currently pushing 10 percent, but the needs of the elderly are still being ignored. In 2030, the proportion of the population above 65 will reach 20 percent.
It's not difficult to imagine that there will be more priority than regular seating on buses by then, that even 40kph will be too fast, and that the timing for the green light at street crossings has to be adjusted to avoid problems for the elderly. In addition, all facilities have to take into consideration usability for the elderly, and our current perception of the relationship between time and space must also be thoroughly adjusted.
Will all these changes occur automatically 30 years from now? Look at how we currently treat the weaker groups in society -- the inconvenience and haphazardness of handles and handle bars in elevators and handicap toilets in the MRT system, the tiled paths for the blind on sidewalks that do not provide guidance for the blind and which the seeing see as obstacles making it difficult to walk, or wheelchair ramps so steep that a wheelchair almost topples over.
Such inferior facilities only tell us that Taiwanese society as a whole adopts this self-deceiving attitude to be able to ignore the groups for whom the situation differs from the majority of society.
The environmental improvements we need will not materialize automatically 30 years from now, and it is already too late to begin correcting things now. When the elderly population has doubled compared to today, we will have become the ones fighting for resources. Apart from the changes to the environment that are being implemented today, we will not be able to rely on the goodwill of the younger generations. Returning our gaze to present society, there will be pay-back for our current attitudes toward the elderly in an already visible future.
C.J. Anderson-Wu is editor of Taiwan Architect magazine.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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