DPP legislators criticize Taichung City Government: Green transportation has failed and the use of private transportation has increased.

The Taichung Municipal Government team will step down in less than three months. City Councilor Shih Chi-chang of the Democratic Progressive Party said that Lu Xiuyan’s eight years in power claimed to promote green transportation and net-zero transformation. However, according to the latest survey data from the City Government’s Accounting Office and the Ministry of Transportation, the rate of Taichung citizens using private motorized vehicles has increased instead of decreasing, from 79.6% in 2014 to 81.6% in 2024. On the contrary, the market share of green transportation and mass transportation has declined sharply, and the problem of bus off-duty and overtime work has not been solved, forcing citizens to rely on themselves and choose cars and motorcycles instead.

The Transportation Bureau stated that in order to stabilize bus driving manpower, it has continued to ask passenger transport operators to add manpower, and continues to review the departure status of each shift through automatic bus departure audits. Abnormal bus departures will be punished in accordance with regulations and included in the evaluation.

Councilor Shih Chih-chang said that according to the latest gender statistical report released by the City Planning Office and the survey on the daily use of transportation vehicles by the Ministry of Transportation, the market share of private motorized transportation vehicles in Taichung City was 79.6% in 2014, and it has climbed to 81.6% in 2024.

Shi Zhichang said that the proportion of women driving private motorized vehicles has increased from 78.1% to 80.9%. Looking at the market share of public transportation, men dropped from 10.6% to 8.8%, and women plummeted from 13.1% to 9.2%.

Shi Zhichang criticized that this shows that the attraction of public transportation in the city has been seriously lost in the past eight years. In particular, the problem of bus off-duty and overtime work has not been solved, and the transportation resources of sea lines and rural areas have been severely marginalized, forcing citizens to rely on their own resources and choose cars and motorcycles instead.

Shi Zhichang emphasized that Lu Xiuyan is about to step down, and the city government cannot just rely on publicity or subsidies for private low-carbon vehicles to cover up the decline of green transportation. He asked the city government to completely improve the problem of bus off-duty and insufficient driving, accelerate the equal deployment of sea-line public transportation, and provide sound transportation infrastructure.

Transportation Director Ye Zhaofu said that the impact of the epidemic in recent years has caused the country to face a bus driving shortage. The city government has adjusted the road network for more than 200 bus routes, and added 26 small yellow bus routes in 8 years. It has also built Happy Bus services along Lishan and Da'an Streams to serve rural areas, and continues to work hard to improve the public transportation environment.