Department of Transportation

A variety of events are taking place in 2,000-odd cities worldwide to mark the World Carfree Day (WCD) on September 22nd. Having launched Carfree Day campaigns since September 22nd, 2002 in association with the European Mobility Week (EMW), Taipei City was authorized to use the EMW logo as an official WCD participant as well as the only Asian city beside Japan to hold EMW membership.

The WCD activities in Taipei have been transformed recently to the “weekly carfree day” campaign from the usual cycling trips, road closures and sweepstakes for MRT/bus passengers, with the hope of encouraging people to support the car-free cause by concrete actions, such as making every day a Carfree Day. It is worth noting that the “5284 Contest” held last year was especially highlighted by EMW and also included in its annual report. This year, EMW dedicated a feature story to the “WCD 2011 in Greater Taipei Region” event at http://www.mobilityweek.eu/Taipei-Taiwan-2011-Ten-years-of.html in recognition of the impressive and revolutionary measures the City implemented in 2010. That feature story promoted the global visibility of Taipei City, while showing how committed the city government is to the WCD’s focal theme of “building human-centric, sustainable traffic infrastructure”. Among the various activities of Carfree Day 2011 skillfully incorporated into daily life in Taipei, the Internet-based “Saving the Polar Bears” saw the city government team up with private businesses to reduce over 77 metric tons of carbon emissions. In addition to the “5284 Love Stories” that registered over 12,000 entrants, the most popular “Green People Carfree-Life Concert and Creative Market” was attended by more than 5,000 people with 1,000 signatures of Taipei residents collected in support of the “car-free spirit”. To mark the Carfree Day, on the 18th of September, MRT Taipei launched a “No Extra Charge for Bikes on the MRT” event that benefitted over 1,500 cyclists on a single day, approximately 500 more than the daily average.

Over the past decade, Taipei City Government has garnered support from the general public with improved traffic infrastructure, which includes the introduction of low-pollution buses, a downtown network of bike lanes, the 30 km/hr speed limit in residential areas, improvements in both the barrier-free environment and pedestrian space, the 5284 e-Bus information system, the Easy Traffic in Taipei (or “Taipei Hao-Xing”) App, and refined measures for safe school commuting. Such user-friendly arrangements have secured enough support from people city-wide to adopt eco-friendly means of transport. Thanks to the decade-long contributions jointly made by Taipei City and its residents, the Taipei MRT system was used 3.15 million times throughout 2010, compared to the 2.6 million times in 2001; the 500-meter radius of MRT facilities cover 87.5% of the city; over 100 low-chassis gas-electric hybrid buses have been introduced; the total length of bike lanes exceeds 120 kilometers; the percentage of bicycle use has hit the 5% mark; and a public bicycle rental system was recently launched.

2011-09-30