Shen, Chiang lay out transportation, urban renewal plans for Taipei

Detailed summary

Democratic Progressive Party Taipei mayoral candidate Puma Shen (沈伯洋) and incumbent Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) of the Kuomintang (KMT) laid out their transportation and urban renewal plans for the capital at a televised policy presentation Saturday.

Taipei, Nov. 14 (CNA) Democratic Progressive Party Taipei mayoral candidate Puma Shen (沈伯洋) and incumbent Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) of the Kuomintang (KMT) laid out their transportation and urban renewal plans for the capital at a televised policy presentation Saturday.

To alleviate traffic congestion in Taipei, Shen proposed integrating electric YouBikes into the T-Pass program, which offers unlimited rides on public transportation for a monthly fee of NT$1,200 (US$36.48).

The bikes, Shen said, could help residents cover the last stretch of their commutes, saving them the walk from metro stations to their destinations and encouraging greater use of public transportation.

Shen also proposed better integrating existing bicycle trails and building two "bicycle bridges" across the Keelung River to extend the reach of Taipei's current bicycle trail network and encourage more people to use the city's bikeshare program.

In addition, Shen said he would explore the possibility of extending the 30 minutes of free rides currently offered on non-electric YouBikes to electric models, which cost users NT$20 for every 30 minutes during the first two hours.

Chiang, meanwhile, proposed a NT$399 monthly pass offering Taipei and New Taipei residents unlimited bus rides, saying this would address the shortcomings of the T-Pass program for bus commuters and benefit about 300,000 people.

Turning to housing and Taipei's large number of aging residential buildings, in particular, Shen proposed forming an "old building life extension" team to give residents easy access to information about their homes, including seismic safety coefficients, whether pipelines need replacing, what barrier-free facilities their buildings are eligible for, and how their rooftops could be beautified.

For stalled urban renewal projects, Shen proposed what he called the "infinite urban renewal" initiative, under which the city government would build a new building on government-owned land near an aging building slated for…

Und…

Opening of the article, excerpted from Focus Taiwan (CNA). To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.