Owners of electric bicycles would be required to register their bike, obtain a license plate and buy insurance before using public roads, as revisions to traffic rules covering the bikes took effect yesterday.
The revisions to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰) designate e-bikes as “mini electric two-wheel vehicles” that cannot be operated without a license plate.
E-bike owners would have to formally register their vehicle and purchase at least three years of compulsory automobile liability insurance at a cost of at least NT$1,358 for a newly purchased bike. Previously bought vehicles can be operated with shorter insurance coverage. Bikes purchased within the past year, for instance, would require two years of coverage for at least NT$971.
Photo: Huang Liang-chieh, Taipei Times
For e-bikes purchased before Nov. 1, owners would have a grace period of two years to register and buy insurance.
There are about 200,000 e-bikes in Taiwan, and owners who fail to register them would be subject to fines of NT$1,200 to NT$3,600 and be barred from using them.
The minimum age for riding an e-bike is 14. Riders must wear a helmet and the speed limit is 25kph.
E-bike riders are also forbidden to carry passengers, make unauthorized modifications, or ride them on sidewalks or regular bike lanes, except in riverside parks.
The new regulations came after an increase in the number of crashes involving e-bikes and concerns that they pose a heightened risk to minors, lawmakers have said.
Experts have said that the new legal status for e-bikes would also clarify what owners would be eligible to if their bike is stolen and help the vehicles find a market niche.
Ko Chun-pin (柯俊斌), chairman of the Taiwan Transportation Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association’s motorcycle manufacturing division, said the government might provide subsidies for e-bikes as part of its campaign to promote environmentally friendly vehicles.
Taiwanese firms manufacture a combined 80,000 to 100,000 e-bikes each year, with about 80 percent of them being sold to migrant workers, Ko said.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS