Motorcycles are a transportation means generates high level of pollution. They are difficult to install pollution prevention devices which are oftentimes very expensive. In general, motorcycle owners do not have the idea of having their motorcycles maintained on a regular basis. They pay more attention on performance than exhaust emission. If the motorcycles are old, it only aggravates the air quality deterioration. As the number of aging motorcycles goes up, the CO and HC that come out of the tail pipes only make people’s health and the environment worse. Literatures have shown that the inhalation of too much carbon monoxide (CO) leads to the loss of oxygen carrying ability in the hemoglobin of the red blood cells and eventually CO poisoning. On the other hand, hydrocarbons (HC) increase the possibility of cancers. Therefore, the “mobile pollution source control and low-pollution vehicle promotion project of Chiayi City” was implemented to improve the reduction of emission from mobile pollution sources and the performance of regular emission inspection on motorcycles in use and the management auditing of inspection stations. Also for old and highly polluting vehicles and 2-stroke motorcycles, the auditing efforts are intensified and owners are encouraged to replace their transportation means with low-pollution vehicles.
Up to December 15, the progress of the project is summarized as follows: 3,906motorcycles that were not reported in for inspection responded to the notice of inspection with an achievement rate of 130.2%; 2,550motorcycles were pulled over to roadside inspection and 22.4% of them failed; 25,066notices were issued to alert owners for the inspections and 881were returned. 9,317motorcycle owners responded to the notice with a response rate of 37.2%; 10,625 motorcycles were identified using license plate identification, 8,568motorcycles responded to the inspection with a response rate of 80.6%; and 141,362 postcards were mailed for notification of inspection, and 4.52% of them were returned.
327inspection stations were audited for the project. 25of them received a notice for violation of “Rules governing the establishment and management of inspection stations for air pollutants emitted by motorcycles in use.” General defects found during auditing were asked to improve immediately or by a given deadline in order to ensure the implementation quality of inspection stations. The errors at these stations were found falling within 4% in the comparison with standard gas samples. A linear auditing was performed on inspection stations in both February and May and August and November(for the analysis instruments at specific stations) and a full-scale linear inspection on the analysis instrument at all inspection stations was conducted in May. All but 3 stations were found to meet the criteria for errors. Two training session was provided for inspection station staff, and 95.7% of registered qualified inspectors attended the session.
5 sessions of outdoor inspection and promotion were provided as of December 15. 427 motorcycles were inspected free of charge and 14 of them failed with a failure rate of 3.3%. As of now, 2,460owners applied for subsidies for the replacement of their 2-stroke motorcycles. 7 sessions of low-pollution vehicle promotion were provided. 3,800people came to these sessions and 409 tried out the electric motorcycles prepared at the scene.
Chiayi City is dedicated to promote higher quality requirements for motorcycle inspection stations, define quality policy, goals and commitments and make sure that the policy is understood by every level of society, put to practice and well maintained. The city hall took the first initiative by establishing motorcycle emission inspection institutions in the name of Environmental Protection Bureau, Chiayi City as certified by Taiwan Accreditation Foundation. On May 29 2015, TAF initiated the annual auditing and the auditing board confirmed that the city’s motorcycle inspection institutions all conformed to ISO/IEC 17020 requirements.
1,243vehicles were reported to produce excessive exhaust. 1,066 passed the preliminary inspection and 396 passed the second inspection. The percentage of monetary awards issued was 31.9%. 21 motorized vehicles were inspected for noise level at a stationary state. One of the vehicles failed the test due to illegal modification of exhaust pipe.
