The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is planning to expand a local carpooling program in Taitung County after it proved effective in meeting the needs of residents in some of the nation’s more remote areas.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) made the announcement after inspecting a carpooling service in Yanping Township (延平).
Before the service was launched on a trial basis about two years ago, it would take students nearly two hours to reach school, including a 40 minute walk to the bus stop, the ministry said, adding that older people would carry small stools with them, as it often took them one to two hours to walk to the nearest bus stop.
Photo: CNA
The government used to believe that the transportation issue in remote areas could be solved by providing a public bus system, Lin said.
However, the bus fails to reach villages in the mountains, and is only offered once every few hours, he said.
The carpooling service matches supply and demand for transportation in communities in remote areas, Lin said, adding that residents are also recruited to transport older people and children.
An elementary-school principal told Lin that one of their students would take a day off from school whenever it was raining because his house is about 8km from school.
His parents sometimes needed to ask the police for help to take him to school, but the carpooling service enables him to go to school like any other child, Lin said.
A nurse at a community health clinic also said that older people would not have to worry about missing their appointments anymore, as they can book the service in advance, he said, adding that the project should be replicated in other remote towns.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Liu Chao-hao (劉櫂豪) said that Taipei and Taitung face very different transportation challenges.
While Taipei might be debating whether a new station should be added to the MRT railway or whether it should offer an upgraded YouBike service, older people in Taitung even have trouble getting from their house to the train station, Liu said, adding that the carpooling service solves the “last mile” issue in the public transport system.
The ministry would soon launch a second intelligent transportation project to expand the program to other remote towns, Lin said.
The government would allocate NT$5 billion (US$168.69 million) to fund the project over the next four years, he added.
State-owned companies under the ministry, including China Airlines, Chunghwa Telecom and Chunghwa Post, are to be urged to adopt any of five recommended remote towns and fund the carpooling service there, offering each town NT$700,000 to NT$1.5 million in funding per year.
The Directorate-General of Highways said that it would propose an amendment by the end of this year that would permit carpool drivers to carry passengers using their own vehicles and rental cars, adding that the amendment would also state the qualifications of such drivers.
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