Taipei is to tilt the balance of space available on the city’s streets toward cyclists, Taipei City Government Traffic Engineering Office Director Tiger Chen (陳學台) said yesterday.
He made the comments at a Department of Public Works event to announce the widening of 4km of sidewalk next year that is set to include stretches of Heping W Road, Xinsheng S Road and Roosevelt Road.
The roadways are to be narrowed to make room for more sidewalk space, which is to be partly lined with trees and include bicycle paths, benches and public art.
“Past road design has mainly centered on automobiles, largely ignoring the needs of pedestrians and cyclists” Chen said.
While road design would continue to take into account the needs of scooters, a significant amount of space would be allocated to pedestrians and cyclists, he said.
With the increasing popularity of the city’s YouBike public bicycle rental system, the use of bicycles has increased 24 percent since 2011, he said.
Given the city’s goal of increasing bicycle use to 12 percent of all traffic use by 2020, Chen said the city would move to accommodate and encourage bicycles at the expense of scooters and cars.
For example, the sidewalk expansion along Xinsheng S Road would be accomplished largely by eliminating moped parking space along the road, he said.
The planned sidewalk expansion is an addition to existing plans to construct a lattice-work of three horizontal and three vertical bicycle paths across the city center, New Construction Office Director Huang Chih-feng (黃治峰) said.
Setting up separate bicycle paths would help improve safety, he added.
Police statistics show traffic accidents involving bicycles have increased 41 percent since 2010.
A contract for the sidewalk expansion project is to be awarded by January, with construction to be completed by the end of the year, the Public Works Department said.
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS