The Ministry of Health and Welfare on Wednesday said it would continue to try and amend regulations to specify that priority seats on public transit may be used by anyone “in genuine need,” after the changes failed to pass the previous legislature.
The issue most recently gained traction last year after writer Li Ang (李昂) complained about young people not yielding their seats on the Taipei MRT.
Debate has centered around whether the seats should be reserved for elderly people, people with disabilities, pregnant women and children as they are now; expanded to include anyone in need; or abolished outright.
Photo: CNA
The debate has gone on for many years, Social and Family Affairs Administration Director Chien Hui-chuan (簡慧娟) said on Wednesday.
In 2016, experts and stakeholders invited by the ministry to discuss the issue decided that the seats should be kept, Chien said.
More meetings were held in 2019 and 2021, at which participants agreed that eligibility should be expanded to include “people in genuine need,” she said.
Changes to the People with Disabilities Rights Protection Act (身心障礙者權益保障法) were submitted to the legislature in 2022, she said.
Although there is little disagreement about priority seats, lawmakers were unable to reach a consensus about other changes to the act, she said.
As newly elected legislators have now taken office, the ministry must resubmit the amendments.
Chien said that her agency is in the process of communicating with civil groups on adjusting provisions of the bill.
Regardless of the regulations, priority seats are intended to remind passengers that others may have a need to sit down, she added, calling on people to yield their seats to those in need.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
RSS