Scooter-sharing companies in New Taipei City are to be required to create a system for banning scofflaw riders after data showed that traffic infractions they incurred were 10 times that of regular scooter riders.
Scooter sharing has become ubiquitous in the city since WeMo launched its services there in early 2019.
Three other firms — iRent, Gogoro’s GoShare and CarPlus’ GoSmart — have since entered the market, offering a combined 17,246 scooters for short-term rentals in 16 districts across the city.
Photo: Cheng Ming-hsiang, Taipei Times
However, New Taipei City Transportation Department data show that the system poses a challenge to road safety, with traffic infractions and crashes in the first six months of this year involving vehicles that the companies provide far exceeding those among other riders.
Shared scooter riders were involved in 376.8 traffic infractions per 1,000 riders in the year to June, compared with 34.7 among all other scooter riders, the data showed.
Improper parking was the most common report, followed by improper adherence to road signs and speeding, the department said.
Riders of shared scooters were involved in nearly triple the number of crashes, with 6.3 per 1,000 scooters compared with 2.1 per 1,000 among all others, it said.
Department Director Chung Ming-shih (鍾鳴時) told a meeting of the city council’s road safety committee on Tuesday that the department would require greater oversight.
The operators have already been asked to create a “blacklist” of customers found guilty of drunk driving, driving without a license or other dangerous activity, Chung said.
They are also required to set up an inquiry system for the government to check scooter distribution, he said.
As the city is closely integrated with Taipei and Taoyuan, Chung also called for cooperation to set up an evaluation mechanism for vehicle sharing to improve safety and quality.
The report follows calls last month by Taipei City Councilor Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) for better oversight of scooter sharing in the capital.
At a Taipei City Council meeting, Wu cited data that showed riders of shared scooters were responsible for 21,937 infractions last year.
The most common offense was parking tickets, which accounted for more than 57 percent of all such tickets issued in the city last year, Wu’s data showed.
Additional reporting by Kuo An-chia
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,912) for advertisements that exceed its approved business scope, requiring the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license may be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter enforcement of Chinese e-commerce platforms and measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan in response to US President Donald Trump’s heavy tariffs on China. The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee met today to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文) said
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,900) for advertisements that exceeded its approved business scope and ordered the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license would be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter supervision of Chinese e-commerce platforms and more stringent measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan as US President Donald Trump’s administration cracks down on origin laundering. The legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday met to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report on the matter. Democratic Progressive Party
RSS