House prices in Taipei have been shockingly high for some time, which has led to the rise of house prices in New Taipei City and Taoyuan. Many of those who work in Taipei, but cannot afford to buy a house or an apartment in northern Taiwan choose to live in Yilan County.
It is well known that the cost of living in Yilan is much lower than in Taipei. As a result, a great number of people commute between Yilan County and Taipei every day.
A new monthly transportation pass program was recently announced by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, and it has generated attention from the public. The inter-city monthly pass would allow commuters to have unlimited access to Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) systems and highway buses, neither of which are included in Taipei’s and New Taipei City’s monthly passes.
The inclusion of the TRA systems and highway buses is especially beneficial for commuters who do not live in the metropolitan area. Many Yilan residents who work in Taipei or Taoyuan would find the NT$1,200 monthly pass extremely cost-effective. Traveling between Yilan and Taipei via the Chiang Wei-shui Memorial Freeway — also known as Freeway No. 5 — is their daily commute. They travel to earn a living, not for fun.
Regrettably, although the monthly pass program includes Taoyuan’s Jhungli (中壢) and Yangmei (楊梅) districts, it has excluded the towns of Toucheng (頭城) and Jiaosi (礁溪) in Yilan.
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan and Yilan constitute a shared residential sphere, and this should be a consensus shared by leaders in those places. Their common goal should be to improve inter-city transportation together.
It has always been the central government’s priority to reduce traffic along Freeway No. 5 during rush hour. If Yilan can be incorporated into the monthly pass program, more people would opt for public transportation rather than driving individually. Hence, traffic congestion can be mitigated and carbon emissions reduced. It would be a win-win situation for the government and commuters.
City mayors and councilors should work together and include Yilan in the monthly pass program. Collaboration between city and county leaders would rid northern Taiwan of parochialism.
Dino Wei is an information technology engineer from Yilan County.
Translated by Liu Yi-hung
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) challenges and ignores the international rules-based order by violating Taiwanese airspace using a high-flying drone: This incident is a multi-layered challenge, including a lawfare challenge against the First Island Chain, the US, and the world. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) defines lawfare as “controlling the enemy through the law or using the law to constrain the enemy.” Chen Yu-cheng (陳育正), an associate professor at the Graduate Institute of China Military Affairs Studies, at Taiwan’s Fu Hsing Kang College (National Defense University), argues the PLA uses lawfare to create a precedent and a new de facto legal
In the first year of his second term, US President Donald Trump continued to shake the foundations of the liberal international order to realize his “America first” policy. However, amid an atmosphere of uncertainty and unpredictability, the Trump administration brought some clarity to its policy toward Taiwan. As expected, bilateral trade emerged as a major priority for the new Trump administration. To secure a favorable trade deal with Taiwan, it adopted a two-pronged strategy: First, Trump accused Taiwan of “stealing” chip business from the US, indicating that if Taipei did not address Washington’s concerns in this strategic sector, it could revisit its Taiwan
Chile has elected a new government that has the opportunity to take a fresh look at some key aspects of foreign economic policy, mainly a greater focus on Asia, including Taiwan. Still, in the great scheme of things, Chile is a small nation in Latin America, compared with giants such as Brazil and Mexico, or other major markets such as Colombia and Argentina. So why should Taiwan pay much attention to the new administration? Because the victory of Chilean president-elect Jose Antonio Kast, a right-of-center politician, can be seen as confirming that the continent is undergoing one of its periodic political shifts,
Taiwan’s long-term care system has fallen into a structural paradox. Staffing shortages have led to a situation in which almost 20 percent of the about 110,000 beds in the care system are vacant, but new patient admissions remain closed. Although the government’s “Long-term Care 3.0” program has increased subsidies and sought to integrate medical and elderly care systems, strict staff-to-patient ratios, a narrow labor pipeline and rising inflation-driven costs have left many small to medium-sized care centers struggling. With nearly 20,000 beds forced to remain empty as a consequence, the issue is not isolated management failures, but a far more
RSS