Make democracy work for you
After two years, several twists and turns, and the efforts of Taipei City councilors Yang Ching-yu (楊靜宇) and Chen Hsien-wei (陳賢蔚), several parking spaces have been added along both sides of a section of the slow lane (about 100m) at the intersection of Zhiyuan Second Road and Xian Street in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投). In early May last year, these spaces were converted to diagonal parking spaces — and, to great surprise, only took two days to complete. By doing so, 25cm to 40cm have been freed up.
During rush hour, entering and exiting parallel spaces next to slow lanes is a major frustration. Since traffic volume is heavy at those times, major or minor fender benders can and do occur. The much more serious wrecks can be left to the imagination.
Diagonal parking spaces along slow lanes have three major advantages: It is easier to get in and out of them, and line of sight is not impeded, so drivers can see incoming traffic or pedestrians and avoid collisions — this is called “safety.” The center lanes have been widened 25cm to 40cm. This is what convenience is all about.
However, up to 90 percent of the parking spaces dotting the sides of slower, outside lanes are still parallel spaces. Logic would have it that when roads are repaved, this would be a perfect time to change them to diagonal parking, but this is sadly impossible for civil engineers. Until late last year, Beitou has had multiple sections of roads repaved, but the same old parallel parking spaces remain.
Many in the public sector continue to hold fast to a pessimistic maxim of: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Well, it is broke. If we could place more importance on public opinion, work toward improving society and adopt many of the good ideas out there, this would be a boon for ordinary people in Taiwan’s democratic society.
Yang Li-yi
Taipei
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to bully Taiwan by conducting military drills extremely close to Taiwan in late May 2024 and announcing a legal opinion in June on how they would treat “Taiwan Independence diehards” according to the PRC’s Criminal Code. This article will describe how China’s Anaconda Strategy of psychological and legal asphyxiation is employed. The CCP’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) conducted a “punishment military exercise” against Taiwan called “Joint Sword 2024A” from 23-24 May 2024, just three days after President William Lai (賴清德) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was sworn in and
Former US president Donald Trump’s comments that Taiwan hollowed out the US semiconductor industry are incorrect. That misunderstanding could impact the future of one of the world’s most important relationships and end up aiding China at a time it is working hard to push its own tech sector to catch up. “Taiwan took our chip business from us,” the returnee US presidential contender told Bloomberg Businessweek in an interview published this week. The remarks came after the Republican nominee was asked whether he would defend Taiwan against China. It is not the first time he has said this about the nation’s
In a recent interview with the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) called President William Lai (賴清德) “naive.” As always with Ma, one must first deconstruct what he is saying to fully understand the parallel universe he insists on defending. Who is being “naive,” Lai or Ma? The quickest way is to confront Ma with a series of pointed questions that force him to take clear stands on the complex issues involved and prevent him from his usual ramblings. Regarding China and Taiwan, the media should first begin with questions like these: “Did the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)
The Yomiuri Shimbun, the newspaper with the largest daily circulation in Japan, on Thursday last week published an article saying that an unidentified high-ranking Japanese official openly spoke of an analysis that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) needs less than a week, not a month, to invade Taiwan with its amphibious forces. Reportedly, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has already been advised of the analysis, which was based on the PLA’s military exercises last summer. A Yomiuri analysis of unclassified satellite photographs confirmed that the PLA has already begun necessary base repairs and maintenance, and is conducting amphibious operation exercises