Public transportation accounted for 15.2 percent of trips in Taiwan last year, up 0.9 percentage points from 2022, a survey released on Friday by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications showed.
The increased use of public transportation can be attributed to the end of social distancing amid the COVID-19 pandemic and programs, such as TPass, encouraging the use of buses and metro services, Department of Statistics Director Chen Hui-hsin (陳惠欣) said.
The study was conducted from Sept. 1 to Dec. 31 last year, garnering responses from Taiwanese aged 15 or older about their travel the day before.
Photo courtesy of the Kaohsiung City Government’s Transportation Bureau
On Feb. 1, TPass 2.0 was launched, with the maximum rebate for frequent public transport commuters rising to 40 percent.
The survey showed that women were more likely to use public transport than men, with 19.2 percent of female respondents saying they used it a day earlier compared with 11 percent of males.
Use of green transportation was 28 percent, a 0.3 percentage point increase from 27.7 percent two years ago, when the survey was last conducted, Chen said.
Green transportation is public electric vehicles and trains, and non-motorized vehicles, she said.
The survey showed that 43.7 percent of respondents used motorcycles, 26.6 percent used cars, 9.9 percent walked, 6.6 percent used trains, including high-speed rail, and 6 percent used buses or shuttle services.
Use of trains rose 1.1 percentage points last year, overtaking use of buses and shuttles for the first time in the survey’s history, the ministry said.
Urban metros, the high-speed rail and Taiwan Rail use increased 0.6, 0.3 and 0.2 percentage points respectively, it said.
The survey asked respondents their reasons for traveling and broke the answers down by age.
It showed that 76.2 percent of respondents in the 15-to-19 age group traveled to school, while commuting to work was the reason for 55.4 percent of those aged 20 to 60 and 34.5 percent for those aged 60 to 64.
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