Taipei Project Blunders

Bike Lanes
While reading the paper I noticed a letter to the editor talking about a recent bike lane that was constructed in Taipei.  It had been overrun by scooters and parked cars within the first day of opening to the public.  The path was hastily constructed without input from the local community, and apparently without any regard for usability.  The construction of the bike lane narrowed the car and scooter lanes to such a degree that scooters were forced into the bike lane, and because there is never any space for parking, cars had to stop in the bike lane and put on their blinkers to access a local shop.  In addition to the narrowing of the lanes they were also inconsistently painted so that the lane would shift from being 1m in places than shrinking to half a meter or disappearing completely.  This whole setup forced bicyclists to use the sidewalk, and thus defeated the whole point of construction.  In fact the poorly planned project made things worse!  The government of Taipei City effectively paid a couple million dollars for nothing.


Politics
Sadly this project and its failures are just one of the more recent failures that the mayors of Taipei have sped through in a rush to secure votes.  The governing logic of most politicians in Taiwan seems to be that they sit around and do nothing for 3 years and in the final months leading up to an election quickly fix the roads, plant some flowers, and complete a project ahead of schedule.  All this as to say to the voters that they are worthy of another term.  The impacts of this kind of political culture are obvious in the example of yet another failed project.


MRT Neihu Line
Taipei has a wonderful subway system, the Taipei MRT.  But recently an extension was built to the existing Muzha line(the brown line) called the Neihu line.  The existing line had to be modified with a new electrical system and rolling stock from Matra to Bombardier.  The original price tag was listed as 42 million TWD  but quickly approached 63 million TWD.  The line finally opened after 13 years of delay.  Upon opening on July 4th 2009 the line had a series of malfunctions.  Only a week later on July 10th the line had to be shut down from 3:30pm until 6:30am the next day.  These malfunctions disrupted passengers and left trains stuck on their elevated tracks.  Passengers had to walk on the elevated tracks to the nearest station.  After numerous errors and problems the system was investigated by a special council which found out that the mayor had rushed the completion of the line without proper testing.

The Maokong Gondola
Another classic example of ineptitude is the Maokong Gondola.  The Gondola is a cable car route which starts near the end of the Wenshan line(south brown line).  The Gondola gives folks access to the gorgeous tea fields of Maokong.  The Gondola opened on July 4th 2007.  On the first day of operation the mayor Hau Lung-pin and former mayor, now president Ma Ying-jeou were suspended in the air for 10 minutes due to mechanical failure.  Passengers have complained about the ventilation of the cabins as well, stating that they can become very hot in the sun.  The major problem that struck the line was one that was quite foreseeable: a typhoon.  Typhoons strike Taiwan on the regular, at least 5 every year.  So after a typhoon struck, the hills where the support columns were built had shifted due to erosion from the rain, and lack of trees to support the hill.  So once again another project that could have been amazing, was shut down after a year of operation.  Operations were officially stopped on October 1st 2008.  The line was recently fixed this year, and many recent passengers have said that the line feels like it could stop at any moment due to a rough ride.  The opening of the line nicely coincides with Taipei City government elections, coincidence?