People aged 70 or older who do not renew their driver’s license would be entitled to a monthly NT$1,500 public transportation and taxi subsidy as part of a program to improve traffic safety, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday.
The ministry is to introduce 17 driving reforms next year, including removing true-or-false questions on the written exam for cars and scooters and lowering the age at which elderly people must renew their driver’s license to 70 from 75.
The Highway Bureau would offer preferential rates equivalent to the T-Pass program of 50 percent fares up to a maximum of NT$1,500 per month, the ministry said.
Photo: Huang Hsu-lei, Taipei Times
Services that the program covers includes city buses, intercity buses, Taiwan Railways and light rail trains, MRTs, public bikes, ferries and taxis, it said.
The subsidies are based on similar local government programs for elderly people, the bureau said, adding that they would only be applied if an elderly card is presented.
Eleven of Taiwan’s 22 administrative regions have elderly card systems for taxi fare payments, it said.
Elderly people who do not renew their driver’s license would be able to use the card to pay taxi fares, with the funds deducted from the e-wallet tied to the card, it said.
The subsidies would be available to anyone who registers once the program is launched next year and would be provided for two years, the ministry said.
The subsidies would be issued on top of other social welfare subsidies, Bureau Secretary-General Lin Yi-sheng (林義勝) said.
The bureau is mulling how to provide the new subsidies to residents of regions that do not have an elderly card system, Lin said.
Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯) said it is possible that the subsidies would be run entirely through the T-Pass program.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
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