Activists are to stage a protest in Taipei on Friday to prevent the Taipei City Government from starting demolition work at the Gongguan Traffic Circle the following day.
The city government last month unveiled the plan to convert the roundabout into a traditional intersection and demolish an underpass for buses on Roosevelt Road.
Some locals, including students and faculty members from National Taiwan University, National Taiwan Normal University and National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, criticized the plan.
Photo courtesy of the Taipei City Government
The protest, titled the “Traffic Circle Walk-and-Read Rally,” is to start at 7pm on Friday, the organizers said in a news release on Sunday.
The organizers said city officials started to work on the project only after Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) announced it on his Facebook page, and they called it a political decision.
They also said Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Shu-chuan’s (李四川) claim that demolishing the underpass and having a surface-level bus lane would delay buses for only three seconds lacked scientific proof.
“City officials have not provided any data from scientific reports or modeling. They have not provided any proof on how after the demolition the new intersection would improve road safety,” they said. “Civil groups had requested that the city government first try enhancing road markings and traffic signs around the circle, and turn the existing structure into a modern roundabout.”
“Our proposal suggested that retaining the underpass could help the traffic situation at the intersection, but the city government dismissed it completely,” they added.
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