Department of Transportation

On August 22nd, the Taipei City Department of Transportation kicked off a series of city-wide celebratory events for the 2011 World Carfree Day (WCD) at a press conference that took place at the City Hall. Unveiling this year’s theme of “Less Carbon, More Smiles”, Taipei City Mayor Hao Lung-bin, along with the beautiful WCD Ambassadors and a gleeful crowd celebrated the 10th anniversary of WCD in the Greater Taipei Region. A TV commercial film co-starring Hao and musician-environmentalist Matthew Carl Lien was also broadcast, inviting all those attending the press conference and the people throughout the city to lead a carfree lifestyle while actively participating in this year’s WCD events.

Taipei City is the country’s first city to celebrate WCD and is also a member city of European Mobility Week. Thanks to its decade-long efforts, Taipei boasts the lowest carbon emissions in the country and has drawn international attention in this regard. The City’s creative 5284 promotional campaign (resembling “I love the bus” in Chinese) also received an "outstanding event" award at the 2010 EMW annual conference. This year the city further offered to feature in a news story Taipei City’s inspirational everyday attempts to achieve a carfree lifestyle.

This year, the Taipei City Government once again invited musician-environmentalist Matthew Lien to serve as spokesperson for the WCD Taipei events. The events include: “My Ten Carfree Moments”, a contest of creative carfree-themed photographs; “The 5284 Love Stories”, an online romance writing contest with a public-transit theme; as well as the “Green Transportation Forum”, where in addition to the keynote speeches delivered by prominent figures in transportation-relevant industries, government agencies and academic institutes nationwide, the Forum will also see Eric Britton, the founder of WCD, share his account of global trends in transportation and environmental protection. Meanwhile, Mayor Hao will personally lead all units of Taipei City Government, local schools and environment-minded businesses in calculating the amount of daily carbon reduction, via the online activity “Saving the Polar Bears”. Last but not least, the “Green People Carfree-Life Concert and Creative Flea Market” will take place from 3:00 to 9:00 p.m. on September 17th in Da-an Forest Park prior to World Carfree Day (September 22nd). Not only will a market featuring eco-friendly, creative goods be available on the afternoon of September 17th, but WCD Taipei’s spokesperson Matthew Lien will also have an autograph session offering a close encounter with the WCD supporters. Starting at 6:00 p.m., a clean and eco-friendly unplugged concert will feature Lien leading various musicians, including Emily Guan and Suming Rupi (winners of the Golden Melody Awards in the Best Hakka-Language Singer and the Best Indigenous Album categories, respectively), and Lin Sheng-xiang, also known as the “King of folk songs”. These musicians are expected to fill the evening with refreshingly cathartic experiences while encouraging celebration of the 2011 WCD across the Greater Taipei Region.

2011-08-30