Taoyuan City's arcade leveling project efficiency declines; city government urged to continue implementation

The Taoyuan City Government launched the arcade leveling project in 2010. As of September last year, a total of 17,362 meters had been improved, averaging about 1,100 meters per year. However, the construction length has dropped significantly in recent years, from 1,885 meters in 2021 to 1,451 meters in 2022, 893 meters in 2023, and only 868 and 861 meters in 2024 and 2025. The Taoyuan City Audit Office requested review and improvement. Several city councilors questioned the city council today (25th), asking the city government to make further efforts and continue to promote it. When the Works Bureau reported on the work of the council today, Councilor Lin Zhengxian was concerned about the leveling of arcades and asked the city government to find out the reasons for the decline in improvement efficiency, work hard to overcome and continue to promote the plan. Councilor Xie Meiying also asked "whether the decline is because there are fewer arcades that need to be leveled, or the project has encountered a bottleneck," and asked the city government to continue to work hard and give pedestrians a safe way to go out and go home. Liu Xijun, director of the municipal maintenance engineering department, said that the leveling of arcades has been promoted for many years. In the past, it was easier to obtain consent, but in recent years it has become increasingly difficult. Engineers have to spend more time and effort communicating with the public, which affects the length of the project. We call on neighbors or public opinion representatives to have suggestions for road sections, and the city government will record them for evaluation and processing, so as to jointly create a livable city where "the arcades are leveled and everything is accessible." Jiang Zhinan, the secretary-general of the Maintenance Department, explained that although the property rights of the arcades are private, they are required by law to be accessible to the public, which can easily cause doubts among homeowners. In addition, many stores have raised the arcades, set up slopes, stacked goods, and even used them as parking spaces. The leveling project may affect existing usage habits and business flow. In addition, the construction will take about a week. Store owners are worried about dust, noise, inconvenience, and business losses, which may reduce their willingness to cooperate. In addition, the leveling of arcades emphasizes continuous leveling. As long as one household disagrees, it may form a breakpoint and even trigger a chain reaction among neighboring households. If the property rights are complicated, the landlord is absent, or the owner and the tenant have different opinions, it will also increase the difficulty of communication. Jiang Zhinan said that early communication is the key to the smooth progress of the project. The city government uses neighborhood discussions, on-site surveys and door-to-door consultations, and adopts cross-bureau cooperation and rolling review methods to promote construction. At the same time, it uses opening contracts to improve construction flexibility. In order to reduce the impact on businesses, the project will be carried out day and night to shorten the construction time. The continuous 50-meter road section can be completed in 3 to 5 days at the fastest, and low-noise work will be arranged at night. In addition, the city government has also introduced AI to simulate the results of leveling, allowing homeowners and businesses to understand the improvement in advance and increase their willingness to cooperate. This year, priority will be given to selecting road sections in urban areas with dense crowds and around MRT stations, including Guishan Wanshou Road, Taoyuan Zhongzheng Road, Taoyuan Night Market Commercial District, Bade Jieshou Road, Zhongli Yimin Road, Luzhu Liufu Road, etc., to continue to improve the pedestrian environment and implement the vision of human-centered transportation.