Amid complaints from scooter riders, Taipei City police started a crackdown yesterday on motorcyclists parking illegally on walkways along Renai Road.
After a two-week probation period, police started their campaign by towing motorbikes parked on pavements and arcades along Renai Road, between Taipei City Hall and Tunhua North Road.
A total of 60 motorbikes were taken away and a motorcyclist was fined NT$850 on the spot, staff at the city's traffic police corps said.
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
The move was part of the city government's policy to exclude motorbikes from arcades around the city, though parking bays on walkways have been designated.
"The purpose is to give pedestrians a more convenient environment," said Huang Chung-nan (
Huang said the policy had been implemented on two roadways in Taipei since the end of last December, including Chunghsiao East Road, between Yenchi Street and Fuhsing South Road; and Tunhua North Road, between Minchuan East Road and Pateh Road.
As early as 1997, former Mayor Chen Shui-bian (
Although city officials said the crackdown had been launched with the convenience of pedestrians in mind, motorcyclists had mixed views on the policy.
"I am against this policy," said Chung Hsiao-yi (
"If it's forbidden to park in the arcade area along this road, then there won't be enough parking spaces available. Lots of workers reach this area by motorbike and it's already very difficult to find parking spaces every morning," Chung said.
He said he should be granted the right to park under the arcade of his restaurant as long as his parking did not cause any inconvenience to pedestrians.
Kuo Liang-tsuo (
But Kuo also urged the city government to provide enough parking spaces on Renai Road to meet the urgent demand of motorbike parking.
"I hope that the city government will provide alternative parking places for motorcyclists," Kuo said.
Both Chung and Kuo admitted that yesterday's crackdown had forced them to seek parking spaces in back alleys and lanes.
"There isn't enough parking space available here [referring to specially designated parking spaces on the walkways of Renai Road], so I've got no other option but to move my motorbike into the back lanes," Kuo said.
But Huang said his administration had researched the demand for parking spaces on Renai Road, and about 90 percent of the estimated demand had been met by the new parking spaces designated on the road.
He also said the city government didn't plan to supply parking spaces for all motorcyclists, since they could "make use of the more-than-adequate transportation provided by the MRT network, now that it has been established."
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
Conflict with Taiwan could leave China with “massive economic disruption, catastrophic military losses, significant social unrest, and devastating sanctions,” a US think tank said in a report released on Monday. The German Marshall Fund released a report titled If China Attacks Taiwan: The Consequences for China of “Minor Conflict” and “Major War” Scenarios. The report details the “massive” economic, military, social and international costs to China in the event of a minor conflict or major war with Taiwan, estimating that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could sustain losses of more than half of its active-duty ground forces, including 100,000 troops. Understanding Chinese
US President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday said that “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the “status quo.” “He [Xi] considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing, but I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that,” Trump said. Trump made the comments in the context
SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarines China is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. The remarks came as two of the country’s top think tanks jointly issued a 29-page report framing actions by “right-wing forces” in Japan as posing a “serious threat” to world peace. While that report did not define “right-wing forces,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
RSS