Taiwan to issue special plates for roadworthy antique cars

Taiwan to issue special plates for roadworthy antique cars

2023-06-13

The transport ministry has unveiled its special license plates for roadworthy antique cars. Some 6,000 brown and white plates will be issued as early as the end of the year, allowing classic cars to legally hit the road.

To qualify for a plate, the car must be over 35 years old, and it must be well maintained. The applicant must have proof of the car’s antique status from the original factory or dealership. Antique cars with the plate will only be allowed on roads on Sundays and other designated days.

古董車專用車牌上路 6560組號碼開放申請

2023-06-13

古董車未來將有專屬車牌！交通部最新公布樣式，最快年底前、就能核發上路。顏色採取"棕底白字"，首波開放各6560組號碼。

申請必須符合認定標準，包括車齡超過35年，取得原廠或代理商等單位的證明文件，以及內裝保持完善等條件，才有資格拿到，而且限定週日或是特定日行駛。

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12 more preschoolers test negative for sedatives in New Taipei drugging scandal

We start with an update on New Taipei’s preschool drugging scandal. Urine drug tests on another 12 children came back negative on Tuesday. Results are still pending for one child, but already that makes 26 negatives out of 27 samples. Critics accuse New Taipei City of being slow to investigate and missing the urine testing window for sedatives. Testing will next be conducted on the children’s hair samples, where the drugs can be detected for up to three months.

The health ministry ran urine tests on 27 children involved in New Taipei’s preschool drugging scandal, and the first 14 tests had come back negative. On Tuesday, another 12 tests returned negative. Now only one test is still pending.

Lin Ching-feng
Health official
The results are all negative. It is in line with what we had expected, because it is likely that the half-life of the drugs has passed, or that they’ve been metabolized or excreted. We have records from 31 phone call inquiries. They are willing to offer hair samples for testing. Drugs can be detected in hair samples for more than three months.

The DPP accuses New Taipei City of reacting too slowly, forcing investigators to miss the window for performing drug tests.

Chang Chih-hao
DPP spokesperson
The city government dragged its feet for more than 20 days before deciding to do a drug test. It deliberately waited until the drugs would not show up in a test. That is fact. The Hou administration is lying to society, and it’s using the judiciary to cover up the truth. The heads of the relevant agencies and departments refuse to acknowledge they made a mistake in their decision-making process, or admit that the city government handled the matter poorly. All this has left parents feeling anxious and helpless.

Hou Yu-ih
New Taipei mayor
If Chairman Lai Ching-te is saying that the matter was reported to us very early on, that’s just a smear campaign, a fabrication. The moment that the New Taipei government was notified of the matter, it was reported to the investigation agency at the district prosecutors office. Vice President Lai Ching-te is just sowing panic and contributing to the spread of false narratives.

Chen Nai-yu
New Taipei councilor (DPP)
On May 22, a parent called the Education Department headed by Chang Ming-wen 張明文. The department said that it wouldn’t be until the following week that a task force would be formed. They told the parent to call again one week later.

Hou Yu-ih
New Taipei mayor
The investigation was launched on May 15.

Chen Nai-yu
New Taipei councilor (DPP)
The parent called on May 22, there is a record of the call.

Hou left city council as soon as the allotted time for his report was up. With many unknowns looming, the scandal has become yet another cause for mudslinging ahead of the presidential election.

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Taipei City rolls out yellow zebra crossings to keep pedestrians safer

Road markings can be quite complex in Taiwan. If you didn’t grow up here, you might be especially confused by the multitude of signs on the roads. Add to that, the fact Taipei City is introducing several new types of zebra crossing! Today we take a look at some special types of colorful zebra crossing popping up in the capital. The “yellow zebra crossing” is designed to keep pedestrians safe and encourage drivers to slow down. Another crossing, with three lines, is easier to detect with a walking stick.

Zebra crossings are not the simple black and white they used to be. Here’s a black and white crossing next to a yellow and black crossing. But what’s the point?

Many people don’t know that Taipei City has adopted these colorful crossings from Singapore. Officials want road users to slow down when crossing them. The markings were trialed on five crossings in 2020, and found to effectively increase the braking of drivers by 5-10%. This year, officials are focused on rolling them out on school-run streets with no traffic lights. Eighty-six more crossings will be introduced by the end of 2023.

Member of public
I don’t think it’s very obvious when you’re driving a car. It would be better to raise it up with paint, so it clatters when you go over it. That would work better.

Member of public
They don’t make any difference. Everyone is the same. Nobody slows down.

Member of public
I always slow down a bit when I come to a junction, anyway, but will seeing that make people slow down? It would be better to paint a big “slow” sign on it.

Taipei City has previously run trials of a 3-D colorful zebra crossing, but it was removed after being found ineffective as well as likely to cause scooters to slide. Meanwhile, this is another special zebra crossing that’s more and more common on the street.

It has three extra lines – they’re guidelines for blind people. It’s 40 centimeters wider than a standard zebra crossing, and it’s easier to detect with a walking stick.

Huang Huang-chia
Taipei City Traffic Engineering Office
Blind people can walk forwards, following the lines. We installed 27 of these crossings this year. Our goal is to introduce these markings at all 191 of the traffic lights with voice signals in Taipei City.

All of these innovative crossings are designed to keep pedestrians safer and reduce accident rates.

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Expand machinery use to make vegetable growing more efficient: COA

Mechanization is being touted as the solution to labor problems for Yunlin’s agricultural industry. At a recent demo, machines that plant seedlings in the ground were shown off, in an effort to promote the spread of heavy machinery. The Council of Agriculture minister and local lawmakers were on hand to endorse a change in farming practices. Yunlin is Taiwan’s top vegetable producing county. It’s struggling with major labor shortages and farmers say more use of machinery could make their work easier and faster.

This is an automatic seedling planter. As it moves down the field, the seedlings are deposited neatly in the ground. It’s operated by a single farmer, who gets the whole field of 1,000 square meters planted in just an hour.

Farmer
All the workers in our village who plant for us are grandmas in their seventies and eighties. So, with this machine, on the one hand we can control the spacing better, and on the other hand it’s easy and convenient and we can use the time we save for other things.

It used to take hours of toiling to get all those seedlings into the soil. A field this size would take four people working for four or five hours. But as the government promotes the mechanization of these tasks, planting and harvesting machinery is making farmwork easier and reducing the need for labor.

Chen Chi-chung
Council of Agriculture minister
This demonstration was everything from preparing the soil and preparing the planting beds to field management and finally harvesting. Those four steps can all be automated.

Liu Chien-kuo
DPP lawmaker
Mechanization as a good way to supplement labor can definitely make Taiwanese agriculture more competitive, especially for the vegetable growers of Yunlin, the largest vegetable producing region in the country. It’s certainly helpful for all of us farmers.

Yunlin is the most important region for vegetable production in Taiwan. As it grapples with the serious labor shortage of recent years, it’s looking toward mechanization to make agriculture more efficient.

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Model and music student takes charge of the family fruit factory

Agriculture is often thought of as a traditional, even conservative field. But in fact, there’s lots of fresh blood coming into the field all the time – especially now in the wake of COVID-19. Today we meet one young farmer who’s taking over the reins of the family fruit business. Chang Nai-wen was a model and music student, before she decided to get into fruit. Now she’s taken charge of the family fruit factory, and is responsible for supplying fruit to almost 200 schools nationwide.

All the workers are wrapped up head to toe in hygienic uniform here at this fruit-cutting plant in Kaohsiung’s Qishan District. But one young face is bound to catch your attention: This is Chang Nai-wen.

She single-handedly managed a refit of the whole factory’s cold chain, as well as an upgrade of the processing procedures. But three years ago, she was completely ignorant of agriculture.

Here she is, conducting an orchestra. Chang has a master’s in music from National Sun Yat-sen University, and majored in conducting. And if you think she looks like she could be a model, that’s right, she’s appeared in lots of commercials too.

Chang Nai-wen
Agricultural distribution cooperative
It was really because of my shiba inu. Whenever I have free time I want to come home and chill with her. So I went along to have a look, and thought it seemed great and I was interested.

Chang jokes that she moved back home and got into the industry to have more time to spend with her dog. She had to start from scratch in studying agriculture, but she’s serious about bringing change to this seemingly traditional industry.

Chang Nai-wen
Agricultural distribution cooperative
The three fields that I’m in are all very contrasting, or a bit contradictory. But I actually think those contradictions are a plus for me.

Chang Chih-jung
Agricultural distribution cooperative
Our methods are quite conservative, of course. Now, young people have their own ways of thinking. I approve of their ideas, so we allowed her to throw her all into it.

Chang’s father has let his daughter take on a major role. The company is currently responsible for supplying 170 elementary and junior high schools across Taiwan. That means daily lunch fruit for more than 100,000 children. But schools have big breaks in summer and winter. Chang has developed a fruit box business aimed at big tech manufacturers, to pick up the slack in the school holidays.

Chang Nai-wen
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You have to think how your boxes can be different from others, or how you can present them differently, or how to market your brand. These are the things to consider. And then when you do it, when you get the clients’ orders, you think “this feels like an achievement.”

From conductor to model to young farmer, Chang has already had a very broad-ranging career, and now she hopes to change the image of fruit in customers’ minds.

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