The Taipei City Government yesterday moved to accommodate the metropolis’ rapidly growing number of cyclists, announcing moves toward providing accident insurance to YouBike users and new bike racks around Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations.
Ministry of Transportation and Communications statistics show that the number of bicycles as a proportion of the city’s traffic has increased by 25 percent since 2011, creating safety concerns as legal and policy structures try to catch up.
While individual motorcycle and car drivers are required to purchase insurance to cover accident liabilities and injuries, as are operators of major forms of public transport such as buses, trains and airplanes, bike riders are not.
The growing popularity of Taipei’s YouBike system has made it a widespread form of public transportation.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications said that finding ways to require insurance have been hampered by a lack of precedent, as well as difficulties estimating costs and deciding how to incorporate insurance payments into the YouBike system.
After media reports about the death of a young YouBike user this week, Taipei Department of Transportation Commissioner Wang Sheng-wei (王聲威) yesterday said the city will move to provide accident insurance to YouBike riders and insurance to cover injuries to others for which the riders might be liable, although injuries to riders themselves will not be covered.
The city will also not require YouBike riders to wear helmets, because riders should make their own decision based on the nature of their routes, Wang said.
Moving bicycles are not the only cause for concern — the rapidly rising number of bikes parked on sidewalks also poses a risk, especially next to MRT stations, the Department of Transportation said.
The department plans to add about 4,000 new bike rack spaces around the city next year, with a focus on areas around MRT stations.
Parking rules will also be more strictly enforced around the stations, with illegally parked bicycles removed on a regular basis, the department said.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “[we] appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
RSS