A Taipei City councilor wants the city’s Transportation Department and Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) to do something to ease the traffic congestion along the east side of the Taipei Railway Station caused by lines of waiting taxis.
The road along the east side of the station has five lanes, but the two lanes closest to the station are limited to truck traffic, while the taxis occupy two more lanes.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Councilor Chen Yu-mei (陳玉梅) yesterday accused both the Traffic Department and the TRA of poor planning and poor traffic control measures and urged them to work together to find a solution.
“Taxis occupy at least two lanes and the passengers have to risk walking past cars to enter the station,” Chen said as she inspected the traffic situation in front of the station.
The railway station is one of the country’s major transportation hubs, and the traffic around it was expected to increase substantially after the MRT airport line is completed, she said.
Traffic Department Commissioner Luo Shiaw-shyan (羅孝賢) promised to deploy more traffic police around the station to ensure traffic flow, but he urged the TRA to provide underground parking space for taxis if it wanted to resolve the congestion problem.
Opening up part of the station’s public parking lots to taxi drivers would prevent lines of taxis at roadside stands from tying up traffic, he said.
Luo said the congestion around the station was a long-term problem his department had been trying to solve.
It would seek help from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and ask the railway station to free up some parking spots for taxis next year, he said.
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