The Taipei City Government is considering drafting bicycle parking regulations to manage bicycle-sharing systems, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday.
The Singapore-based oBike bicycle-sharing and rental system was launched in Taiwan in April and rapidly expanded to about 10 cities across the nation, with the company saying that it has more than 500,000 users.
The oBike system has a “rent anywhere, return anywhere” policy that allows users to leave the bicycles anywhere they want, while government-backed bicycle-sharing services, such as YouBike, have fixed docking stations.
Photo: Chang An-chiao, Taipei Times
However, city councilors and borough wardens said they have received many complaints about oBikes parked inconveniently or occupying private bicycle and motorcycle parking spaces.
The New Taipei City Government has banned oBike parking in public parking spaces in 11 densely populated districts and has towed more than 1,000 oBikes.
“This is a common problem whereby the law is unable to keep up with technology, but the ‘sharing economy’ is a global trend that might be hard to block, so it needs to be managed, not banned,” Ko said.
There are about 36,000 bicycle parking blocks or racks in Taipei, and more if bicycle and motorcycle parking spaces are included, Ko said.
“If an oBike is parked in a legal bicycle and motorcycle parking space, it will not be towed,” Ko said, adding that if an oBike is parked where bicycle parking is banned, it will be towed.
“We should have thought about the problem before it occurred, but often we are forced to hurry and deal with a problem after it arises,” Ko said. “However, we encourage people to take public transportation. Whether it is an oBike or a YouBike, we want them managed, so we will draft comprehensive regulations.”
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS