Swing timers installed in Taipei public parks have come under fire for poor design after many were found broken within two weeks, adding to calls for the city to abandon the policy.
Seeking a solution to disputes caused by children monopolizing swings, the Taipei Parks and Street Lights Office on Oct. 9 installed timers in six parks, which emit an alarm after three minutes of use.
If the trial in Daan Forest Park (大安森林公園), Youth Park (青年公園), Nangang Park (南港公園), Qiangang Park (前港公園), Bihu Park (碧湖公園) and Taipei Flora Expo Park (台北花博公園) proves successful, the office plans to implement the technology across the city, it said.
Photo: CNA
However, critics were quick to condemn the plan.
The Association of Parents Participating in Education led the charge, on Saturday last week launching a petition to remove the timers and interviewing 100 children about the policy.
“One of the reasons for installing the timers is to promote sharing, but the parks office does not seem to understand that sharing must be spontaneous,” the association said.
Forcing the matter instills fear rather than kinship as the impulse behind sharing, it said, adding that the timers would “kill children’s ability to learn to share and become spontaneous, autonomous, empathic and whole people.”
Taipei City Councilor Meredith Huang (黃郁芬) said that the devices were poorly designed.
She had visited Qiangang Park on Monday to check on the timer, but only found an empty metal case, Huang wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
The office told her it had been damaged because the case was not water resistant, so the manufacturer took it back for repairs, she wrote.
“How long did the timer last? From installation on Oct. 9 to now, it has only been 10 days,” she wrote.
The problem was not limited to Qiangang Park, Huang said, adding that nearly half of the devices were already broken, including one that broke after only two days.
She said that the devices can also be manipulated, extending the time before the alarm.
In her efforts, Huang said she had spoken to a child who changes the limit to an hour by putting their hand into the box at a certain angle.
They were also installed too high for smaller children to reach, while the cases’ sharp corners are dangerous, she added.
All of these issues should have been addressed before the trial began, Huang said, recommending that the office keep these findings in mind when considering whether to expand the system.
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