Department of Transportation

    Located at B2 of the Taipei Bus Station (No. 32, HuayinStreet), Taipei City’s Traffic Information Center, which opened to the public on December 28, 2009,has had 25,000 visitors as of February, 2013. In 2012, a total of 285 groups, or 10,529 visitors,toured the Center. Compared with 2011, a substantial growth rate of 32.3% was achieved in 2012. By means of interaction, the Center has introduced Taipei City’s transportation system in detail. In addition to exhibiting historical artifacts, such as old-time bus tickets, bus license plates, etc, the Center has further demonstrated Taipei’s smart transportation development, covering smart buses and parking guidance systems, to allow citizens to better understand the City’s traffic control facilities and smart transportation development.
    An analysis of the number of visitors in 2012 revealed that 113 groups, or 4,370 visitors from all school levels, accounted for 42% of the total number of visitors. The top three schools having the highest numbers of students visiting the Center were Taoyuan County Daxing High School, Kainan High School of Commerce & Industry and National Taiwan University, consecutively. Through its efforts, the Traffic Information Center not only has been recognized by all school ranks,but also plays the role of making transportation education deep-rooted in the City. Moreover, a total of 76 groups, or 1,229 visitors in 2012, were academics/experts and civil servants from China and other foreign countries, which illustrates that Taipei’s smart transportation development has reached a significant scale, making it worthy of being observed and experienced by foreigners.
    The exhibits presented by the Traffic Information Center include themed areas such as:smart transportation, historical review, transportation engineering, parking information guidance systems, bicycles, mass transportation systems, system operation, etc, among which the bicycles area is school kids’ favorite.Through simulated images, citizens may ride a YouBike, Taipei’s popular smile bike, and roam the City’s bikeways, or even race with their friends. In addition, citizens may also operate the simulated vehicle to enter a parking lot, or better understand the smart transportation system via the touch screen. Moreover, tablet PCs can also be used to operate traffic information-related APPs, and citizens may have their pictures taken in a photo booth as a memorabilia of their visit to the Center.
    Situated close to the Taipei Metro High-Capacity Transport Control Center and Traffic Control Center, the Traffic Information Center is also part of the restricted zone due to safety considerations. Hence, a reservation is required and the number of visitors for each time period is also limited. By providing professional tour guide, we hope to offer the best tour quality.
    In order to draw more citizens to visit the Traffic Information Center, the DOT and TRTC cooperate in combining the DOT Traffic Information Center and Taipei MRT’s High-Capacity Transport Control Center in an“MRT Journey” to present a diversified and rich tour. On the other hand, the DOT will continue to expand its hardware and software, in order to provide citizens with the optimal tour environment. It is hoped that, by visiting the Traffic Information Center, citizens will acquire new knowledge and transportation will become an integrated part of citizens’ daily lives.

2013-03-22