Good guess, mr_boogie.
As I understand it, the reason for this is that the overhangs are not part of the pavement, they are part of the building - so they’re not building out over the pavement. Depending on the width of the road, it is compulsory to provide 3.5m back from your frontage for the overhang and the public have the right to walk there (not sure whether the concept of “right of way” exists here legally). They are essentially “private sidewalks” - a compulsory, covered right of way through/under the front of the building.
So they’re not taking over the pavement, the pavement is taking over the property - but not doing it adequately well, hence the properties and their corresponding “private sidewalks” are at all different levels and also regularly blocked by the shops, street vendors and funerals - all of whom probably feel “it’s my land so why shouldn’t I use it?”
The city owned sidewalks do exist in most places (except where they’ve been ripped up for MRT works) - it’s just that, as with many problems here, the law is inadequately enforced and they’re inadequately maintained.
However you look at it, the situation is less than perfect and it wouldn’t be rocket science to make it better. Given his disabled wife, it’s amazing that Chen didn’t try to do anything about it when he was Mayor or President.
That would be great. It’s a no brainer - this country’s fucking hot! It would also make rooftop apartments cooler by taking the heat energy and converting it to power or hot water.
Uhm…but what would you do about all those illegal rooftop apartments where those solar power cells are suppose to be.
make them legal by considering them alternative energy producers. Also, painting the houses white makes them cooler, but you have to consider the investment of repainting every 2-3 years (well, it is white anyway, so the cost is the lowest).
If you legalize the rooftops apartments wouldn’t that set the precedent that the sidewalk “unevenness” issue is not a public issue either.
As long as you cover them with solar panels, they can be considered for energy production and might be a good way of “blanking” the situation.
The unevenness of the sidewalks cannot be considered, because it will most probably reflect on the whole 1st floor level. What they should do is to put law and abide to it forbidding uneven sidewalks. Why not open a “Citizen Shop” where any citizens can report illegal construction? Would it be too costly to inform people of the way construction should be done? Are the newspapers only worried about what Wang’s mother is going to do for dinner?
Proper road signs at least pointing the direction of the airport.
Sindian entrance to North/South number 3 road only provides direction North or South and only after turning south can anyone see the sign for the airport. (the airport is actually West). Taking the Jian-Guo express way the airport is not signposted either.
There might be an imaginative way to co-opt illegal rooftops. The government provides grants/loans/tax breaks/incentives to bring rooftops up to decent safety standards, install solar panels and then makes them legal. For those who don’t wish to take these incentives and bring their homes within the law, the law will be enforced.
Home owners get to improve their homes, get cheap water/power and be within the law. The government gets to rationalise housing, encourage a new industry, alleviate the country’s power generation needs and reduce emissions.
The resources exist within society to do this. Part of good governance and public policy is about creating imaginative and politically acceptable ways of achieving desired ends. Few people would complain about cheap power, reduced emissions, level sidewalks etc. It’s the politicians job to find politically and economically acceptable ways of achieving this. It is possible and from time to time they do come up with novel ways that create win-win situations. We don’t really have a political situation that encourages imaginative solutions right now. Nevertheless, it’s not rocket science. It needs good people with good ideas winning the arguments.
Construction would need to be regulated to make all new buildings on a level, or even slope to the buildings on either side. It would take time to filter through. As with public rights of way over private land in the west, the onus could be put on property owners to make their shopfront passable to the next. Then you’d need to enforce the law. The actual city owned sidewalks would need to be improved too. Usually they’re about a metre wide with bad paving and blocked by street furniture.
another good piece of information just came in
Italian scientists and a major cement company invented a new cement that can break pollutants into non pollutant components. A simple method of lowering pollution by painting walls and repaving side walks with TX Active ™ can lower the quantity of up to 50%, if the covered area is big enough.
WOW
The PSA (Peugeot and Citroen) group also has a catalytic add-on for their diesel, called FAP (filtre à particules, or particle filter) which can also lower the emissions from cars. Smart will launch they Fortwo EV (Electric Vehicle) and other companies are working hard to get environmental friendly cars (but for Taiwanese, unless it is a big car, it will be hard to get them going).
Seoul has a website where its citizens come up with creative ideas to make the city more clean and attractive. The mayor’s office has selected 8 of the ideas posted by Seoul citizens. english.chosun.com/w21data/html/ … 20032.html
Perhaps such a medium is needed in Taipei as well.
mail.
Funny I should notice this post. I was just fuming today because I was on my bike in Luzhou (just north of SanChong) and wanted to head over to Shilin/Tienmu area. So I followed the obvious road to the bridge to Shilin and… whoa, no motorcycles allowed. WTF? They can come the other way, but not go to Shilin from Luzhou. The nearest bridges are like six kilos in either direction, followed by a lot of hassel just to get back to where that bridge would have taken me. Fuc*ed.
Honestly, if I lived in Luzhou I would be picketing the mayor’s office myself. If I lived in Shilin or Tienmu, I probably wouldn’t care. And, actually, I think the bridge is in Sanchung.
Other things…
I hope the new mayor won’t continue Ma’s policy of ruining quaint neighborhood parks by adding ugly concrete crap and pastel lamps.
I hope the new mayor will do something to help protect all the decomposing vintage buildings in Daodachung, Wanhua and Datung areas.
I hope the new mayor will make the cops enforce helmet laws better and encourage other mayors around the island to do the same.
I hope the new mayor will make the cops work harder to discourage double parking and loading in busy two-lane only areas, such as ZhongshanBeiLu and the bottom of FuxingBeiLu.
Ditto for red-light running and disrespecting crosswalks.
I hope the new mayor will change the garbage truck song.
I hope the new mayor will investigate whether Taipei students, especially at the elementary level, are being overworked into underperforming.
I hope the new Mayor will mke sure there is at least one single-journey ticket turnstile and vending machine on each side of the escalator at MRT stations.
I would also advise him to request any volunteer escalator danger patrolpersons to go outside and hassel bad drivers instead.
I can come up with lots more too if given a week and a notebook. If anyone reading this works for Hau (fat chance) please PM me. I’ll give advice for free. 
Make public transportation more affordable, convenient and comfortable. Through taxation make private automobile ownership more expensive. Reduced traffic will increase the likelyhood that people will spend enough time walking the streets to notice how ugly so much of the city is and to appreciate whatever improvements are made. Improving the traffic situation is the key to making this, and almost any other city, more livable.
Believe me, Taipei is far more livable now than it was 12 years ago, and much of the credit goes to the MRT system. The traffic situation is better now, as is the air. The city is also cleaner and less ugly than before.
Believe me, Taipei is far more livable now than it was 12 years ago, and much of the credit goes to the MRT system. The traffic situation is better now, as is the air. The city is also cleaner and less ugly than before.[/quote]
very good to see/hear that its heading in the right direction !!! Can you imagine if one day it could actually become a DESTINATION CITY like Tokyo, HK, Paris, London? New York, etc ?? Where people would be so excited that they are coming to , YES, coming to TAIPEI !!! WHEEE::::: Wouldnt THAT be something??
in a lot of western countries if you say to your buds and coworkers that you are going to spend a week in Paris, or Rome or some such they would go like WOWW, LUCKY YOU.
but you say you are heading for a week in Taipei? First they dont know where THAT is, and then if they do its like OH ? why??
Precisely. What the city neeeds, and is getting, now is more of the same. As the MRT system improves they need to find a way to “push” people out of their automobiles. There should also be a stronger effort made to provide better bus service and to switching the buses over to natural gas. A skeleton public transit service should be available 24 hours a day.
More SUV parking. Cheaper gas. People without their own transport should stay indoors.
Or take taxis. They are allowed to knock over people on scooters, aren’t they?