The nation’s top six nighttime economy hot spots are in New Taipei City, with Yonghe District (永和) at No. 1, followed by Banciao (板橋), Lujhou (蘆洲), Sanchong (三重), Jhonghe (中和) and Sinjhuang (新莊) districts, Ministry of the Interior data show.
Telecommunications and demographic data show that the number of people in these districts at night exceeds that of the areas during the day or the number of people registered to households there, the ministry said.
The ministry’s new “telecom signaling demographic data” combines information collected from mobile base stations with socioeconomic spatial data from shopping areas, bus stations, healthcare facilities and convenience stores.
Photo: Lai Hsiao-tung, Taipei Times
It can be used to study the retail or nighttime economy, and can help inform policy decisions regarding medical and transportation needs, personnel assignments, disease prevention, fire control and housing, the ministry said.
People flow means business opportunities, and aside from regional factors, people flow at different times of the day can have different meanings, it said.
Its “nighttime economy potential hot spot map” was created by weighting factors, including the number of people in areas during certain times, the density of people staying during the night and population inflow, it said.
Rounding out the top 10 districts or townships with the highest nighttime economy index number, after the six in New Taipei City, are Kaohsiung’s Fongshan District (鳳山), Taoyuan’s Taoyuan District (桃園) and Taichung’s South (南區) and North (北區) districts.
The telecom signaling demographic data can also be used to create a medical resource demand map, the ministry said.
For example, the data show that, aside from areas in the mountains, northern Taiwan has more medical resource demand than the rest of the nation, and accounting for the number of people in areas at night, Taipei’s Daan (大安) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts, along with Yonghe, have the greatest medical resource demand, it said.
The data can also be used to create a high population density disease infection risk index of districts, villages and boroughs, and can monitor shopping areas, traditional markets and night markets to help authorities warn or evacuate people from an area, or to inform vaccine distribution plans, it said.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s