Bicycle parking and a bicylce registration system
The Taipei City Government defends its clampdown on bicycle parking according to today's Taipei Times. It's removing bikes parked on sidewalks or along red lines and charge owners a NT$100 removal fee. The fine should be NT$300 per violation according to municipal regulations, but the city wants to play it nice and promote its policy rather than issue fines.
It was a bit worrying to see, though, that one city representative said there wouldn't be any fines until a bicycle registration system was established and that another said the lack of a licensing system for bicycles would be a problem. Is there a bicycle registration system in the works?
Technorati tags: Taiwan, Taipei, biking in Taipei, biking, biking tours, cycling
Others said:
This is frustrating on so many levels. On the one hand the government is trying to promote cycling as a healthy and environmentally friendly activity. But now it is trying to actively discourage cyclists from using their bikes in the city. The problem is that there are not enough places for bikes to park. If the city wants to make more space why doesn't it do something about the millions of motorcycles that litter the sidewalks and illegal street vendors?
David on Formosa | 13:39, 26 November, 2008
It is frustrating, but I don't think they are deliberately discouraging people from biking. After all, they have allowed bicycles to be legally parked in spaces assigned for motorcycles with engine capacities no greater than 550cc. Still, if they start going after the scooters and motorcycles that are illegally parked -- as they should -- those spaces will still be far from enough, so they must think of something more constructive than just removing bikes. Here's a short post referring to a Taipei Times article from March mentioning parking bicycles in motorcycle parkings.
tbv | 14:59, 26 November, 2008
There's no way to identify if the bike is yours.
A few years back, my NTD70000 Giant XTC1 was stolen, so I reported it to the nearby police station.
Firstly they wouldn't believe me that a bike cost so much. "Are you sure it wasn't a motorbike?"
Anyway, they said they had just recovered 15 bikes near Gongguan. So when I got there, they told me to take a look at the bikes to see if mine was there.
When I said it wasn't, they told me to just pick one I wanted. I didn't take one but noone would have known and they would have just given it to me.
Maybe someone else had already picked my bike.
Peter | 23:38, 8 April, 2009
That's a scary story for anyone with a nice bike. It's also why we keep our bikes hanging on a wall in the apartment when we're not out biking.
I would think that if the city government enforces a good registration program for bikes, that would make things like your experience a thing of the past since police could request anyone picking up a stolen bike to prove that it really was theirs.
Here's a happy story about stolen bikes and a bike theft ring that was actually exposed thanks to one of the editors at the Taipei Times who had her bike stolen and returned.
tbv | 11:18, 9 April, 2009