Now, I guess this chap is completely unaware that Taiwan is the second most densely populated place on Earth.
In fact, this whole article is a good representation of how either A) the MOTC has no idea wtf its doing. or B) The MOTC knows what it’s doing and the high level officials there see the potential for lots of scheming. Stalling the plans would give them time to make their scam plans. Either way, it’s a damn shame that this kind of thinking prevails in this so-called modern government. Taiwan UP!
They’re obviously having trouble getting people to give up their convenient scooters, which they can (in most places outside of Taipei) ride from any point to any other point, park literally anywhere and hardly maintain at all.
It’s close, but still a tiny step up from that MOTC head who made the comment “it’s a dragon year, everyone knows dragons like to catch chickens” (zhua ji - for non-Chinese speakers, its a play on words. Sounds like ‘snatch planes’) when talking about the spate of recent plane crashes!
Funnily enough, Poagao, I was Just back in Taipei over the New Year and I was astonished at how far fewer scoots there seemed to be about. My guess is the availability of credit and cheaper cars are luring more people to rain protected four wheels. Far fewer of my friends have, or at least use scoots these days.
Now this may come as a surprise to the Taipei centric view of most foreigners here, but outside of Taipei, parking is pretty easy outside of say Taichung city, Hsinchu city and a few other densely populated spots. Light rails on the whole normally lose money due to low volume even with subsidized rates except for huge densely packed cities with a sufficient number of riders i.e. Taipei, New York, Tokyo etc. Light rail is just a govt and elite program to rob the proletariat of their tax money.
Looking at Taoyuan, whilst the traffic here drives me fucking insane, I can’t see how they could possibly justify the time and expense of building an MRT system here. I live pretty well right on the edge of Taoyuan City. From my place, population density must drop off a cliff within a couple of blocks. That’s roughly west (I think). To the north, within about 1km, there are mountains. To the south, there’s a whole lot of farm land and kind of low density housing. To get downtown by scooter, it takes 20 minutes on average, and that’s right down the worst road for traffic (Zhong Zheng Road). Zhong Zheng Road runs basically perpendicular to the main train line, so there’d be no point in building MRT stops in that direction as local trains seem to serve fairly well to either Yingge (and the north) or Neili (and the south). Whilst it would be just ducky to be able to catch the MRT, I can’t see that they could possibly justify the expense and inconvenience for a couple of years to build the damned thing, and how would they even do it without zoning off and demolishing half of downtown anyway? If they really want to sort out traffic congestion here, there are other much simpler ways to deal with it, such as dealing with all the double parked cars outside shops and poorly timed traffic lights. There’s a ton of low hanging fruit that could shave 25% or more off the time it takes to get anywhere within Taoyuan.
Icon: It is starting to happen (bike lanes), though Taiwan is a long way off people actually commuting to work by bicycle en masse. Today, I’m in a less negative mood about Taiwan and I think that progress is slowly occurring here.
I think a lot of the studies are tilted because they consider the currently very low usage rate of public buses, which they think an MRT would compete with. Outside of Taipei, few people use the buses because they are so few and far between and the schedule is a bit of paper somewhere which bears no relationship to reality. Who is going to stand around at the roadside when they have no idea what time a bus is going to show up there and even less idea of when it will get them to their destination? Only the young, elderly and infirm who have no other choice. Anyone with their own wheels will use them and have at least some control over their arrival time.
The bus companies in turn use the low utilization rates as an excuse to run so few buses, ensuring the continuation of this situation.
A further problem facing public transport in cities other than Taipei and Kaohsiung is the lack of sidewalks. Who wants to risk their life walking however far it is to the nearest bus stop? Who wants to get tanned or get wet because the sidewalk is cluttered by illegal business operations or parking and they’re forced to walk out in the open? Until that problem gets fixed it’s going to be an uphill battle to get people to give up riding their scooters which so handily take them from door to door with no waiting. Why be a pedestrian victim of random driving when you can be the one on wheels?
The chances of the sidewalks being cleared in my lifetime are estimated at zero.
Considering 23 odd million people live on basically only a third of the island of Taiwan (due to the mountains) I would venture to say that Taiwan IS THE most densely populated place on Earth.
Yet what does that really mean though, especially when there are other more convenient modes of transport, and as has been mentioned already, the footpaths are an absolute state? Taipei is not simply a larger version of Taoyuan. It’s a noticeably different kind of city. They’d need to do a whole lot to make it into a place where people would want to take public transport, yet in so doing, they wouldn’t need the MRT…
Sounds quite sensible to me. If the KMRT can’t make any money, how can smaller cities expect to support an MRT? Better to focus on smaller scale improvements in public transport.
They would sure get slaughtered on here if they built lots of MRT lines that no one used… Some people might say they only built them to benefit their friends in the construction industry…
Seems that whatever decision they make is the wrong decision…
The standpoint comes from the utter and dismal failure of the Kaohsiung MRT to attract users. Its running at losses of $250 million per month! People don’t want to use it.
Of COURSE they don’t want to spend that kind of silly money on fucking Miaoli, for god’s sake!
Just buy some fucking buses. Widen the main roads a bit. There are TONS of ways to improve public transport in ALL those places without going to the enormous time wasting expense of a white elephant metro.
Trams anyone?
Now that could be really funny to see here, although I’m sure there would be tons of accidents as well…
Taoyuan could do with a single MRT line from the main train station to the airport, that’s about it imho, after having spent a year living there. The main problem in Taoyuan is the fact that the main roads aren’t wide enough and as soon as someone parks along the road, gridlock…
Can’t argue about the buses there though, as not even my GF could figure out when they were running or where they actually went to… :loco:
Maybe they need to figure out smart ways of building the lines as well, as what’s the point of putting a station in the middle of nowhere? Even some of the MRT stations in Taipei are in odd locations, such as Nangang for example…
Lite rail is not MRT … lite rail doesn’t move masses of people … it’s like trams, street cars … etc … or elevated like Manila or Bangkok, or Taipei Brown line I believe …
Having lived in many places where MRT does not work, I applaud the system. I live on the line to Tuchen line and since it opened, I randomly counted riders. In less than a year, it has doubled and Dingpu Station, the next in line, is under construction. People don’t adapt to change overnight. Put the MRT where they belong and it works, but do it faster. IMHO, don’t rely on Filapina labor. Taiwanese need work too. Pay a fair rate and put the line where people will use it, do it fast and with good workmanship. It works.
