Female legislators and women's rights advocates this week asked that the nation's mass transportation systems reserve certain cars for the use of female passengers only -- a measure that intends to protect women from being sexually harassed.
While the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) promised on Friday to have women-only cars on commuter trains within two weeks, the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said the policy was controversial and needed to be thoroughly evaluated.
"We will host a seminar inviting representatives from women's groups and the Consumers' Foundation after the Tucheng Line begins to operate," said Alex Chang (張煥光), TRTC vice president and spokesperson, "And we want to do it out of our respect for women."
Chang said the city government was considering two main issues: protecting female passengers from sexual harassment during peak hours and not discriminating against male passengers.
Japan offered women-only cars because of overcrowded trains and complaints from female commuters about perverts, while other countries have provided women-only cars for religious reasons.
The TRA plans to designate one of every four cars on commuter trains for use by women only.
TRA Deputy Director-General Chen Feng-nan (陳峰男) said on Friday the policy would come into effect by the end of this month. He said the cars will be used by women and elementary school students.
Chen said the administration had once previously installed cars for the use of female students who needed to commute between Tainan and Chiayi counties 30 years ago.
This, he said, was not something new for the administration.
While some female passengers welcomed the changes, others thought they were superfluous.
"Designating cars for women's use isn't necessary," said Hsu Yu-Fang (
A college student who went by the name "Max" said it would be odd to restrict certain cars for women only. He also said he did not think the measure would prevent sexual harassment.
also see story:
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
RSS