I’ve noticed observationally that free or not, about 20% of people don’t bother swiping on the old long white brt bus and the driver never says anything, but those buses are gov’t run. However the other routes are run by private companies that watch carefully and yell at the odd person who doesn’t swipe on.
Imagine getting on the bus , and the driver says, “Hey whXtey/nXgro, you gotta pay more.”
I can’t imagine anywhere in the world where such a scene would happen.
Sure, it would be too embarrassing for Taiwan. However now in the day and age of swiping cards, finally it seems possible for the government to get away with it.
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But this is discrimination based on nationality, not skin color, so not really the same thing.
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In some countries they give immigrants social welfare, sponsored education, social housing .
Here they make you pay the immigrant tax .
(literally as well with the 20 per cent withholding ).
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Though non-student foreign residents should be married to citizen to get the privilege, they give the privilege to students regardless of their nationality or their visa sponsors. It is interesting.
Just random isn’t it.
I read some of replies describing complaints over something so small as “petty”, but isn’t it much more petty for some Taiwanese bureaucrat to decide to exclude a small number of tax payers from something so small? Seems like an unnecessary bloody minded decision to me.
Anyway, it’s little things like this that maintain my belief that a JFRV still beats an APRC. Provided one’s marriage survives, of course.
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Time to put those superior sex skills to use.
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So if I get married, I cannot be a airline flight attendant. And if I get a divorce I can’t get any more free bus rides. Sounds like it violates CEDAW.
Well, the smart thing to do if you get married is not to go for the JFRV, but rather retain/acquire an APRC. Best of both tiny worlds.
I see absolutely no benefit of JFRV over APRC, apart from being able to ride cheap buses in Taichung, which doesn’t exactly strike me as a marvelous day out.
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You guys need a Marco-in-Taichung who knows how to reach local politicos. This kind of petty discrimination is just dumb.
EDIT: In terms of getting some attention, what about reaching out to this youtuber / instagrammer? He seems like a good man who could calmly make the case why this is not in the city’s best interests:
Guy
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Let’s take average Taichung permanent resident Mary. To get free bus rides in Taichung she needs to be married. And not only that. It depends on who she’s married to too.
That’s what I did.
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Me, too.
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It’s what the locals think about it that matters. I’m a Taiwanese son in law, they don’t know who you are.
I’m married to a Taiwanese citizen. Am I not a son in law because I have an APRC?
And what does “they don’t know who you are” mean?
OK, I nailed them with CEDAW,
台灣是 CEDAW 簽署國。 臺中市新公車票制 idoor.taichung.gov.tw 資格，就該市永久居留(APRC)女性，不當主體，不但視其婚姻狀態，甚至拖累其婚姻對象，巧合牽連該對象能否於該市投票。同樣臺中市 APRC 修女等等，因未婚卻無資格，國際條約不顧。
I’ll be sending that to the city government, and also taiwan’s CEDAW Commission.
English coming soon…
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When they look at your APRC they don’t know you are married.
Taiwan is a signatory to CEDAW. The new Taichung City bus fare rules, idoor.taichung.gov.tw , do not treat Taichung Alien Permanent Resident (APRC) women as a person. Not only do they require marriage, but they even coincidentally require that the person they marry must be able to vote in Taichung elections. Taichung APRC nuns etc. are not married and thus not qualified, no matter what that international treaty says.
So what? I can’t ride the buses in Taichung for free? Well boo-hoo.
And even if I wanted to, I’d just take my marriage licence instead of a JFRV to wherever and get the stupid card.