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Put trash cans around the city and check them/change them daily!!
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Place more benches for people to sit around the city. Not just in shopping areas.
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Lots of parking spaces for scooters, get them off the sidewalks, COMPLETELY. And where there are not sidewalks if it is possible to put a small one.
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Also build high rise parking lots in areas where there is literally no legal parking. it will help make these areas look better.
YEP, I’M WITH THAT ONE, TOO!!!
Don’t forget places like B&Q, Conforama or Geant. These are the places where you buy big things or a lot of stuff, thus you need an easily accessible taxi stand. I always either have to drag all my bags behind me to reach the street or manoeuver a shopping cart over uneven, descending walkways and then leave the cart behind, always scared that it might get in the way of something.
Iris
trash cans, trash cans, and MORE trash cans. ESPECIALLY in/around night markets.
most of the trash cans i see along major streets like heping are small and get filled up quickly. then it just becomes a heap of trash as it overflows.
i’ve noticed SOME trashcans/trashbags around night markets like dunhua, but shilin is a pigsty. seriously. walking around the food area near the “large large chicken steak” place is crazy. so many stalls selling things in take-away containers and no place to throw them away! people end up just dumping stuff on the ground and in people’s scooter baskets. it’s disgusting.
i’m assuming that someone has to come out later and clean up anyway. why not just set large trash cans/bags there in the first place?
The problem with public trashcans - and believe me, I’m all for them!! - is that with the new trash tax (where you have to use only designated, slightly more expensive bags), a lot of people will just dump their trash in public trashcans to save a few bucks. It happened right after the new trash tax came into effect, and if you remember, that’s when the few remaining public trashcans disappeared.
I agree, so another suggestion would be to get rid of the trash tax or just charge all residence a flat fee.
The thing I hate most is the mindset. For all the government’s talk about innovation, there is surprisingly little ability to think outside the box. I sometimes feel that the foreigners are the only ones who are moving this country forward. It can be little things like teaching a travel agent how to find a ticket, the bank teller how to conduct a transaction, a new idea about how to approach a problem.
Things are improving but slowly. I remember having an altercation with someone on the sidewalk about moving aside to let me pass on the left. They wanted to block the whole sidewalk. I said, if you keep to the right, people can pass on the left. “This is not America…they assume everyone is American… we do things the way we want.” Well a few years later and bingo on the subway, escalators in dept stores, etc. signs saying keep to the right… Now we see this on the sidewalks as well. That is one example, so while I enjoy living here very much, I really do believe that without us the Chinese would still be stuck in the middle ages. I feel like I am training 24 hours a day. That can get old. Sometimes you just want someone to be able to do their job. I do not want to always be the one who has to “solve the problem.” Know what I mean?
Thanks for your responses, they have been very helpful. Can anyone tell me something about the far flung corners of taipei city that i havnt seen? if you have something cool in your neighborhood that you enjoy please let me know what it is and where it is. its all very interesting.
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Clean the outsides of buildings. It can’t be that expensive to invest in some of those high-powered water spraying things and clean the decades old grime off of the majority of buildings in the city. This would make things look a lot newer and cleaner. Either this or a fresh coat of paint.
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A complete overhaul of the police system. I remember as a kid in America (and even now) really respecting the police and believing that if anything bad happened they would help, and that they were really there to protect us (yeah, I know, I’m an idealist). In Taiwan, I have the exact opposite reaction … to me, the police here are just legalized criminals and do nothing to make the city safer or better for us to live in. They need to strictly enforce rules & regulations, especially traffic ones (and NOT arbitrarily). They also need to start dealing with the growing drug problem (but unfortunately they’re getting too many kickbacks from the nightclubs).
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Pay a native English speaker for the few hours of time it would take to correct the lousy English signs and announcements in the MRT stations that just make Taipei a laughing stock.
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Quit dilly-dallying around and get Hanyu Pinyin up on all the street signs … it shouldn’t take this long to do it.
I know the Hsintien [Xindian], Mucha [Muja], and Kuandu (Guandu) areas pretty well–all pretty outlying. I would mention the birds and butterflies, and also the hundreds of fascinating temples. These are remnants of a side of Chinese culture which has disappeared from the mainland, and are often set within very picturesque surroundings.
I especially like it when the “gods” go on parade, and think this would be easy to market as a tourist attraction–if somebody had the get-up-and-go to make a schedule of what time each temples’ gods can be expected to go on their walkabouts.
This would be a job for somebody other than Taipei city, but an Appalachian Trail type hiking route would be very do-able, either just around the city or all the way across Taiwan.
The negatives here are pretty much the same as people have been saying–traffic, police corruption, and a general lack of any discernable sign of city planning.
[quote=“LittleBuddhaTW”]
4) Quit dilly-dallying around and get Hanyu Pinyin up on all the street signs … it shouldn’t take this long to do it.[/quote]
Actually, I’m really impressed the street signs are changing so quickly… with the general pace of change with stuff like this, I thought it would have take a year or two (or more). I realize it shouldn’t take this long, but in terms of Taiwanese government, it’s really quite fast. Maybe Ma’s trying to finish it before the elections…?
LittleBuddhaTW wrote:
A complete overhaul of the police system. I remember as a kid in America (and even now) really respecting the police and believing that if anything bad happened they would help, and that they were really there to protect us (yeah, I know, I’m an idealist). In Taiwan, I have the exact opposite reaction … to me, the police here are just legalized criminals and do nothing to make the city safer or better for us to live in. They need to strictly enforce rules & regulations, especially traffic ones (and NOT arbitrarily). They also need to start dealing with the growing drug problem (but unfortunately they’re getting too many kickbacks from the nightclubs).[quote]
I’m not so sure. Over policing has its drawbacks, as I experienced recently in the States.
My friends and I were given misdemeanor fines because we drunk “and a danger to ourselves and others.” Were we drunk? Yes. Were we a danger? Absolutely not. Were we driving? No. In fact, we decided to walk home from a bar. Two gorillas in a black and white stopped us. You know the type: Marine hairstyle, buff, seemingly polite by just oozing malice. I refused to sign the slip accepting the charge (I though it was an admission of guilt) and was handcuffed and placed in the back of the cruiser. After having it explained to me that it was not I relented and was set free. Farking pigs.
If the police are given license to act on anything that is (in their opinion) a “danger” to society, then we have incidents where personal freedoms are encroached upon for the benefit of society, unnecessarily.
Cleveland, the city in question, I believe has a much higher crime rate than Taipei.
I would rather live in an under-policed city than an over-policed virtual jail.
Now, I don’t think Taipei’s police force has things under control. In fact, I think police everywhere suck. They are licensed by middle-class morality. If people want to take drugs, let them. They do no harm to you, or me, no matter what the Ned Flanders of this world will tell you. Police are constantly harassing these very people. While those who ride scooters at 50mph on the sidewalk and endanger others, go merrily about their business.
Now where is the sense in that? The same thing happens in that States and elsewhere. One goes to jail for smoking pot but is fined for speeding. Go figure.
Please, let me out.
First I would like to say that there have been some great improvements in the last few years regarding motorcycles on sidewalks. But I still think that the police need to maintain motorcycle weapons checks because there are still a lot of people who drive motorcycles armed with weapons.
I agree with previous post that walkways should be evened to a “standard”. It’s a hazard.
Tiles on buildings–they will stay for a long time, but it would be nice if an alternate and better design were used for new constructions.
Tiles on the ground–a lot of improvement over the last few years. Now some places have the non-slip kind (in patches though). It’s an improvement.
The busses need a law stating that they can’t cut through lanes from a bus stop to the fast lane, they literally cut you off until you brake to prevent getting squished into a divider. This is particularly dangerous and frequent in an area like Minsheng East Road between Dunhua and Keelung Rds. They should be required to stay in the slow lane on the right or a designated lane unless a left turn is required and they have to cut through lanes.
Traffic lights should be timed like many other major cities so that not all lights in one direction turn green at the same time, because by the time you get to the next light it’s red. This would help alleviate congestion. In addition, sensors could be installed on the ground so that lights don’t need to turn red for small side streets unless necessary, especially late at night. I remember the last time I was in California demonstrating to a friend that the sensors are so smart we never had to stop for a red light for half an hour driving through LA at around midnight. Of course, they would be helpful during the day when too much traffic gets stuck at a light and it still hasn’t turned green yet.
Parking spots: quit redlining legitimate parking spots in an effort to deliberately decrease parking spaces. The whole side of Taida University on Xinsheng was a convenient place to find parking until they redlined it for some crazy reason.
Railroad crossings: big problems in Nangang and Hsichih. Due to the recent widening and movement of rails, some of the crossings are malfunctioning. Isn’t this one thing you don’t want to malfunction? It’s fatally dangerous! Recently, traffic was backed up in Hsichih because all the crossings were down for no apparent reason, and for hours and hours! People were ignoring the fine warnings, breaking down the crossings, checking carefully and crossing. This is ridiculous.
Garbage trucks: I know that people have a special close connection to the decades-old music on the garbage trucks, but it would be nice if the volume could be turned down, or after 30 seconds upon arrival turning the noise off, or please get more variety of songs.
Install more garbage cans, and make sure the garbage trucks clean up on daily rounds. Even though I really don’t want to drop my litter on the street (you know all those childhood littering campaigns instilled in my head), I don’t have a choice because I’m fed up for walking around looking for a place to drop it. So nobody should complain if I just drop my litter wherever–it usually ends up on the nearest motorcycle.
Try to get more sewers covered because the stench is horrible. If you walk past the CD and computer shop at the corner of Roosevelt and Hoping W Rd towards Nanchang St, there is one awful stench that never seems to go away. This is only one of hundreds of places that obviously has some open sewer and there must be enough dirty air particles there to cause disease or sickness.
I’m glad to see that Taipei is modernizing itself, many old buildings are torn down and replaced with better construction and utility connections. Sure, monuments should be restored and saved, but I’m referring to decrepid lots. I’m also looking forward to the MRT extensions and the movement of the rail to underground through Nangang and Hsichih, hopefully this will help a lot of the traffic problems.
The highway extensions through Nangang should also beneficial and the Huandong Dadao is already very convenient for accessing Taipei. I hope the embankments work along the rivers can be completed soon, because we really don’t want to go through more floods like the last few years.
I agree with the trash can, I couldn’t find it when I need it.
and also public toilet.
regards,
anton xie
Agree with a previous post, clear out that media slut Ma Ying jiu. I admired the man immensely when he retired as Justice minister after al that law and order freakery back in '97. But what has he done since?
Get the river forshores happening. It’d be an awful task as you’d have to sort them out almost to the source to ensure your efforts were’nt flashed away with the first phoon. But it should be done.
If anyone has a reference to Mayor Ma drinking from the Tamsui as a body drifts past I’d love to see it. Friend’s claim to have seen it on Chinese news reports as part of a promotion to clean up riverways.
HG
Definately 2 stroke pollution from scooters. I recently switched from a 2 stroke because I couldnt stand the spewing blue smoke from my own. Iknow it won’t change a thing but if everyone did it or moved towards hybrid propulsion it would.
all vehicles with a visible emission are obvious pollutants. All culprits should have the date sprayed on their vehicles with bright red paint and told not to ride it again until it had been fixed. If they are spotted again the vehicles should be publically crushed, preferably in Chiang Hi Chek memorial hall or other prominent place.
Come to think of it - lots of motoring offenses deserve this treatment.