The Executive Yuan is to allocate NT$40 billion (US$1.25 billion) over the next four years to reduce pedestrian casualties by 30 percent by 2030 after a pedestrian safety policy framework was passed at a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday.
The Cabinet passed the framework ahead of a “Stop Killing Pedestrians” protest on Sunday organized by the Vision Zero Alliance.
New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, and Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), its candidate, have said they might attend the rally.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications said that the framework sets short, medium and long-term goals.
The most important of the short-term, or six-month, goals is to forward the draft road traffic safety basic act to the legislature next month, the ministry said.
Another short-term goal would be to establish a Cabinet-level road traffic safety meeting, which would be presided over by Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), it said.
The government is to spend NT$40 billion to improve pedestrian safety, including changing road layouts at 600 sites across Taiwan deemed to be accident-prone or where crowds gather, it said.
Progress reports on the safety improvements would be published every six months, the ministry said.
The medium-term, or one-year, goals would focus on drafting statutes of pedestrian safety facilities, it said.
The statutes would identify important pedestrian facilities, their key performance indicators, and mechanisms to manage and assess them, the ministry said.
The statutes would also ensure that a mechanism is in place to hold local government officials accountable for transportation facilities under their jurisdiction, it said.
The draft road traffic safety basic bill stipulates that the central government would be obligated to provide a national road traffic safety master plan every four years, while the ministry would be in charge of promoting the plan and local governments would enforce it, the ministry said.
To improve vehicle management systems, drivers and motorcyclists who have repeatedly contravened traffic regulations would be given a temporary license when they apply for a renewal, the ministry said.
They would not receive their new license until they address any unpaid fines and pass a defensive driving course, it said.
Any increases in funding for highway bus operators would be prioritized for operators in central, southern and eastern Taiwan, as well as on outlying islands, it said.
Among the long-term, or four-year, goals, a road test would be required to receive a scooter license, it said.
To help increase use of public transportation, the Executive Yuan would continue to promote T-Pass monthly access cards across Taiwan, the ministry said.
From next year to 2030, NT$64.3 billion would be spent to switch all city buses to electric, it said.
The ministry said that it would promote the use of bicycles and other shared vehicles as the “last mile” of public transportation.
Road authorities should pinpoint hazards at high-risk locations and adopt preventative measures, as part of a safety management system to help them plan, design and build roads, it added.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
RSS