Roads threaten ecosystems
While it is true that repairing the mountain road in Hoping township, between Taichung and Lushan, may be beneficial to the farmers of the area ("Locals divided over fate of Cross-Island Highway," Aug. 1, page 1), I agree with environmentalists like Chang Feng-nian (張豐年), because roads everywhere, and especially in mountain regions, destroy fragile ecosystems.
That is not even touching on the fact that driving in mountain areas is dangerous at best, even in broad daylight in good weather. Then there is the horrible death toll and social cost to the public due to the general increase of cars and trucks on highways.
But the powers that be will bat the issue back and forth, or more correctly, continue to lobby for contracts to build roads while ignoring more sensible solutions, because, unless legislation is passed to prevent it, there will always be big money at stake in converting cheap gravel and cement into lucrative highway contracts.
I was horrified last month to read of the ongoing reports of Tropical Storm Mindulle's devastation along with the news that the authorities plan to go ahead with building the new highway between Suau and Hualien.
Actually, it isn't surprising when you consider typhoons as a bonanza to road builders, who go back to repair the very same roads they had built, not forgetting to bill the taxpayers for repairs far exceeding the costs of the original construction. Continuous repair is the one big perk to road building.
I seriously doubt the excuse that the farmers in Lushan, who have pretty much denuded the entire area of vegetation to make way for their peach trees, need the highway to "get their goods to market," as much as they would love to have a wide highway to drive their blue trucks on.
Nor do I buy into Taichung County Commissioner Huang Chung Sheng's (黃仲生) excuse that commuting from the mountains to the plains is a "tremendous inconvenience" to Aborigines, hence the "urgent need" to rebuild the road segment. Has anyone ever considered a train line between Kukuan and Techi? If transporting goods, or Aborigine salarymen, to Taichung were really the crucial issue, I'd suggest building a train line from Lushan to Taichung.
Narrower cuts through that mountainous area would have a far smaller impact on the ecosystem, as well as ensuring better drainage.
A train could transport farm produce and commuters much more easily to the big cities, as well as ferry tourists to Lushan and Hehuan Shan. It would surely provide a safer and much more unforgettable alternative to driving.
Whenever those with vested interests try to sell us more cars, or promote road-building as "progress," they fail to mention that for every new vehicle on the road, society must also make room for a parking space.
These "visionaries" seem to be at odds with reality, much the same as the notorious "pro-lifers" who want every unborn child to live, yet hardly consider any educational or social levies to provide for the additional mouths to feed.
Most of the vacant land in inner cities that could be used for green areas, urban gardens or parks for our children have to take second priority to the added pressures of parking.
The summer temperatures in cities like Taipei or Kaohsiung are becoming more and more intolerable, yet the heat from the extra paved-over spaces, as well as more and more cars on the streets spewing out emissions and adding to traffic congestion, are hardly considered the culprit. All I ever read in the newspapers is that we need more highways, more roads, more cars.
A few months ago, I witnessed someone in my neighborhood cementing around an old coconut tree to provide for another parking space.
Although the tree had most certainly withstood countless typhoons, having cement around it proved too much, as it gave the surrounding soil less water (and less flexibility in a typhoon). That tree's trunk snapped right in half during Mindulle.
Though many people outside Taichung can say they were unaffected by Mindulle, I'd say that I was poignantly affected. One tree may seem trivial, but it is just another link in the chain that holds our entire existence together, and it is exactly what I think about when I hear developers or sold-out politicians talking about more roads and cars.
John Schneidhorst
Kaohsiung
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