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Taipei City’s motorcycle policy

In response to the news article on “Parking fees may be collected for motorcycle parking space in the future” published by certain media on May 29, 2015, Taipei City’s Department of Transportation (DOT) explained that, currently, DOT is drawing up polices with regard to motorcycle usage in Taipei City, and discussing various possible solutions. Collecting parking fees for motorcycles is one possibility under consideration, but it is not the only option available. In addition, up till today, DOT has not proposed a complete fee collection policy for motorcycle parking as reported by the media.

Despite the effort made to promote various green transportation, motorcycles still account for the great proportion of private vehicles in Taipei City due to their convenience, low cost and high accessibility (according to a survey carried out by the Ministry of Transportation and Communication, the market share of motorcycles in Taipei City was 24.3% in 2014). In addition, as traffic accidents involving motorcycles are usually more serious when compared to those of other modes of transport, the policy implementation by DOT will focus on how to effectively increase the safety of motorcycles, improving the motorcycle traffic order and hence providing a safe riding environment and sufficient parking space for all motorcycle riders in Taipei City.
According to the DOT’s statistics on the casualties in traffic accidents involving various modes of transport in 2014, there were 45 deaths involving motorcycles, which accounted for 54.1% of the total deaths in traffic accidents. The number of people who were injured in motorcycle-associated accidents was 23,283, which accounted for 82.1% of the total injured people in traffic accidents. The data show that motorcycle riders suffer a greater risk than those using other modes of transport during traffic accidents.
To better understand the user characteristics of motorcycles and analyze the coopetition relationship between motorcycles and other modes of transport, the DOT is currently preparing a “Taipei City motorcycles and other modes of transport user characteristic and strategy planning” project, which aims to improve the safety of motorcycles and provide a safe riding environment for motorcycle riders in the long run. It hopes to draw up polices related to motorcycle usage and fee collection suitable for Taipei City through data collection on current motorcycle usage and characteristics, as well as analyses of motorcycle ownership, usage, riding behavior and risk, while referring to the coopetition relationship and usage cost difference between motorcycles and other modes of transport. During the planning period of the project, Taipei City Government will invite citizens who are concerned about motorcycle policy in Taipei City to discuss relevant topics through the public coffee shop forum, through which opinions from different perspectives are collected to understand the needs of motorcycle users; the motorcycle policy suitable for Taipei City can be discussed to create a traffic environment friendly for motorcycles and all other modes of transport.

The DOT would like to emphasize again that the motorcycle policy in Taipei City is still under discussion and planning; collecting parking fees for all motorcycle parking space is not the only option under consideration.

Publish Date

2015-06-24