Taipei City Councilor Jeffrey Sheu (
He also proposed to hold a referendum if necessary and a public debate to hear the pros and cons of the system.
Inspecting the proposed route yesterday with city officials and local residents, Councilor Sheu of the New Party said that there were alternatives to solving the traffic problems in Peitou District and Yangmingshan National Park.
"It may be a better idea to have more hiking trails set up on Yangmingshan instead of ravaging the district's beautiful natural environment and rich historical heritage to build a monster," he said.
Sheu's remark received immediate support from local residents.
"A cable car will not ease traffic problems on Yangmingshan but instead will sabotage our beautiful natural environment, and once the damage is done, it's done," said a housewife surnamed Ma. "The roads here are already narrow enough. The least thing we need is more people and cars coming in here."
Lee Shu-hua (
"It's not good news for local residents even if the system does bring in more business opportunities. A booming economy brings more business opportunities, but also creates more traffic and environmental problems," she said.
Chen Ta-cheng (
"I don't care if Peitou has been designated as a residential and tourist area. The bottom line is it's a beautiful place," he said.
Chuang Wu-hsiung (莊武雄), director of the New Construction Department (新建工程處) under the city's Bureau of Public Works (工務局), said one of the alternatives is to build more new roads leading to Yangmingshan.
"Even that is not a good idea because it's bad for the environment," he said. "We'd really hate to see the project scrapped because, after all, it's one of the promises made by Mayor Ma during his election campaign," he said.
Chen Ming-chang (陳明章), a 45-year-old Peitou native, said he doubts the accuracy of the two opinion polls conducted by the city government, in which over 60 percent of the respondents were in favor of the idea.
"We'd like to see a well-designed and well-balanced questionnaire," he said. "There's no point conducting a poll when the questions are misleading and respondents are not well informed."
Chen Lin-sung (陳林頌), an urban planning graduate student at the National Taiwan University, questioned the system's safety.
"Because there will be as many as 194 cars running at a time, imagine how difficult it would be to save as many as 1,500 people stranded in midair if something unfortunate happens," he said.
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