The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would continue to use the “Freeway 1968” app to monitor crowd sizes at some popular travel destinations, despite the Central Epidemic Command Center’s (CECC) plan to ease disease prevention measures Sunday next week.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, where he briefed lawmakers on how the ministry has been managing the digital service, including various apps created for public transport services.
Asked by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hung Mong-kai (洪孟楷) if the ministry would still use the Freeway 1968 app or introduce a new one after the CECC loosens restrictions, Lin said that it would upgrade the app and continue to use it to monitor foot traffic at tourist sites.
Hung said the ministry has created 17 apps for different transportation systems and asked how many of them Lin has downloaded and used.
Lin said that he had downloaded the Freeway 1968 app and the Central Weather Bureau app.
Some of the apps are redundant as their functions are similar, Hung said, urging the ministry to integrate those apps within three months to make them easier to use.
New Power Party Legislator Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) said that some of the 17 apps do not offer updated information, such as the Taipei International Airport app, which was last updated in 2013.
Another example was the app created for Taiwan Cycle Route No. 1, a 968km route across Taiwan, Chiu said.
The app scored only 2.9 out of 5 in app stores, and has been downloaded only 5,000 times since it was created in 2016, he said.
A new edition of the Tourism Bureau’s “Travel Taiwan” app, introduced in 2015, has been downloaded about 10,000 times, Chiu said.
The bureau has 15 Web pages covering different topics — such as mountains, theme parks, hot springs, cycling tours and golf courses — which should be integrated to make them more accessible through one platform, Chiu said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said that government agencies should not insist on creating apps by themselves.
“My experience with the apps created by government agencies is that they are not easy to use and often cost a lot of money to build. Integrating different apps not only makes it easier for people to use, but it would also reduce unnecessary government spending,” he said. “The reason that we have so many little-used and poorly designed apps is that we do not have a mechanism to track how they have been used and whether they are effective in reaching their target audience.”
The government should state clearly in its contract with private app developers the number of users that an app should reach within a specified period, he added.
The government should only provide the data and let the private sector use its creativity to develop useful apps, he said.
Information Management Center Director Wang Mu-han (王穆衡) told lawmakers that the ministry would try to integrate transport services in the same categories, such as railways, highways and air transport.
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