Department of Transportation

Since the press conference held by Taipei City Council member, Ruan Jhao-syong, on August 27, 2013 over the issue of the malfunction of the audible traffic signals (ATSs) at the intersection connecting Ren’ai Road and Guangfu South Road, Taipei City Traffic Engineering Office has enforced a routine check-up and maintenance service to be conducted every four months in order to ensure the smooth operation of ATSs at 161 intersections across Taipei City. From April to August this year, detected malfunctioned devices included: 2 sets of auto sensor starter (constituting a failure rate of 0.3% over the total 644 sets), 9 sets of button switches (constituting a failure rate of 0.7% over the total 1288 sets), and 183 speakers (constituting a failure rate of 14.2% over the total 1288 sets).
The Office indicates that necessary repairs are being implemented on the aforementioned malfunctions. The auto sensor starters are scheduled to return to normal operations in one week, the button switches in two weeks, and the speakers within one month. The frequency of autonomous inspection and maintenance will also be increased, in order to safeguard the interests and safety of the visually-impaired.
To increase the safety of the visually-impaired when passing through intersections, Taipei City Traffic Engineering Office had listed budgets between 2007 and 2009 for signalized intersections to be equipped with audible traffic signals. This measure is meant to aid the visually disadvantaged who have received orientation and mobility trainings to cross intersections, and installation locations were targeted at intersections with higher rate of use by the visually-impaired, i.e. 161 intersections in total. In addition to the “positioning voice” which will guide the visually-impaired to push the button and activate the audible signals, personal portable sensors can also be used to activate the audible signals too. Cuckoo sound, bird calls, and the sound of crickets are the acoustic guidance for the south-north direction, west-east direction, and pedestrians only crossing, respectively, providing a positioning means for passing through intersections safely.

2013-11-04