Parents are encouraged to buy bicycles certified as safe by the government if they are to carry children on them, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, one year after an amendment to Article 76 of the Road Traffic and Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例) was implemented.
The amendment requires cyclists, who must be 18 years of age or older, to carry no more than one child while cycling, adding that they must ride bicycles or electric power-auxiliary bicycles that are certified by the government to be safe.
The rules also state that a child’s seat installed at the front of a bicycle should be used for children aged one to four and weighing less than 15kg, while a seat at the rear should be used for children aged one to six and weighing less than 22kg.
Photo: Cheng Wei-chi, Taipei Times
Cyclists contravening the rules would face a fine of NT$300 to NT$600, the act says.
Bicycles to carry children should have passed the TBIS007 safety inspection, the ministry said.
The Vehicle Safety Certification Center is designated by the ministry to issue certification labels for bicycles that pass the inspection, it said, adding that the labels should be visible on bikes as well as child seats.
Child safety seats to be installed on bicycles should also pass Taiwan’s CNS15978 national safety standard, the ministry said.
Two types of bicycles, two types of electric power-auxiliary bicycles and six types of child seats have passed national safety inspections after the amendment to the act was implemented on March 1 last year, Department of Railways and Highways Director-General Chen Wen-ruey (陳文瑞) said.
That means there are 24 combinations of bike and seat, he said, adding that the information on certified bicycles and seats can be viewed on the center’s Web site at www.vscc.org.tw.
So far, the center has issued only 1,500 certification labels, which means that the ministry should spend more time promoting the use of safe bicycles among parents with children, Chen said.
All of the certified bicycles are made by Taiwanese manufacturer Giant, with prices ranging from NT$7,000 to NT$40,000.
Certified seats are made by Bobike and Irbani, with costs varying from NT$3,000 to NT$8,000.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS