Scooter-sharing companies in New Taipei City are to be required to create a system for banning scofflaw riders after data showed that traffic infractions they incurred were 10 times that of regular scooter riders.
Scooter sharing has become ubiquitous in the city since WeMo launched its services there in early 2019.
Three other firms — iRent, Gogoro’s GoShare and CarPlus’ GoSmart — have since entered the market, offering a combined 17,246 scooters for short-term rentals in 16 districts across the city.
Photo: Cheng Ming-hsiang, Taipei Times
However, New Taipei City Transportation Department data show that the system poses a challenge to road safety, with traffic infractions and crashes in the first six months of this year involving vehicles that the companies provide far exceeding those among other riders.
Shared scooter riders were involved in 376.8 traffic infractions per 1,000 riders in the year to June, compared with 34.7 among all other scooter riders, the data showed.
Improper parking was the most common report, followed by improper adherence to road signs and speeding, the department said.
Riders of shared scooters were involved in nearly triple the number of crashes, with 6.3 per 1,000 scooters compared with 2.1 per 1,000 among all others, it said.
Department Director Chung Ming-shih (鍾鳴時) told a meeting of the city council’s road safety committee on Tuesday that the department would require greater oversight.
The operators have already been asked to create a “blacklist” of customers found guilty of drunk driving, driving without a license or other dangerous activity, Chung said.
They are also required to set up an inquiry system for the government to check scooter distribution, he said.
As the city is closely integrated with Taipei and Taoyuan, Chung also called for cooperation to set up an evaluation mechanism for vehicle sharing to improve safety and quality.
The report follows calls last month by Taipei City Councilor Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) for better oversight of scooter sharing in the capital.
At a Taipei City Council meeting, Wu cited data that showed riders of shared scooters were responsible for 21,937 infractions last year.
The most common offense was parking tickets, which accounted for more than 57 percent of all such tickets issued in the city last year, Wu’s data showed.
Additional reporting by Kuo An-chia
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) today said that if South Korea does not reply appropriately to its request to correct Taiwan’s name on its e-Arrival card system before March 31, it would take corresponding measures to alter how South Korea is labeled on the online Taiwan Arrival Card system. South Korea’s e-Arrival card system lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in the “point of departure” and “next destination” fields. The ministry said that it changed the nationality for South Koreans on Taiwan’s Alien Resident Certificates from “Korea” to “South Korea” on March 1, in a gesture of goodwill and based on the
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
The New Taipei Metro's Sanyin Line and the eastern extension of the Taipei Metro's Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red Line) are scheduled to begin operations in June, the National Development Council said today. The Red Line, which terminates at Xiangshan Station, would be connected by the 1.4km extension to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, while the Sanyin Line would link New Taipei City's Tucheng and Yingge stations via Sanxia District (三峽). The council gave the updates at a council meeting reviewing progress on public construction projects for this year. Taiwan's annual public infrastructure budget would remain at NT$800 billion (US$25.08 billion), with NT$97.3
RSS