Mobile source air pollution accounts for the deteriorated air quality in
urban areas. Among all mobile sources, the black smoke from diesel vehicles is
criticized by people the most. Through the implementation of various diesel
vehicle inspection and control works, this project aims to improve the air quality
of Taipei City and provide citizens a clean and refreshing living environment.
According to the statistics between February 9, 2021 and December 31,
2021, visual inspection of smoke emissions was conducted 46,126 times and
1,731 out of inspected vehicles were found potentially pollutant; dynamometer
inspection was conducted 8,113 times; roadside inspection was conducted 6,067
times and 251 out of inspected vehicles failed to pass the opacity test; and 60
gasoline samples were tested and there was no disqualified gasoline.
With respect to vehicle fleet management, as the logistics industry is
connected to people’s life, it has been promoted to join the eco-friendly fleet. To
assist industry players in obtaining the self-management label, this project
provides them with project-based inspections, where industry players can book a
vehicle inspection in the morning of holidays and Saturdays or go to operators’
inspection station on holidays for smoke emission inspection and label issuance
services. This year (2021), it was estimated to manage 961 vehicles and, as of
now, 691 vehicles already obtained a label. Among them, 550 vehicles were in
compliance with the emission standard of “less than 1.0m- 1 ” (including 476
vehicles with the “Excellence” label; and 208 vehicles with the “Newly
Purchased Phase V/VI vehicles” label) with a label acquisition rate of 71.9%. On
the other hand, this project also assisted to inspect the vehicles of Environmental
Protection Administration (EPA) and designated disposal operators; and to
facilitate related label issuance services. Currently, about 96.7% of EPA’s
vehicles have received at least the Excellence label (with a growth of 16.7%
comparing with 2020); and 75.6% of designated disposal operators’ vehicles have
received at least the Excellence label (with a growth of more than 60% comparing
with 2020). By assisting relevant vehicles to obtain the self-management label,
this project aims to prepare for the establishment of Phase II Air Quality
Maintenance Area.
Concerning the subsidies, amendments have been made to related
regulations and the application date has been extended to 2022. Although EPA
already moved all subsidy cases back to the central government, relevant subsidy
policy has been continuously enhanced through this project. That is, by sending
inspection notification and flyers to related parties and releasing related news, it
is hoped that related policy will be optimized in order to reach EPA’s
replacement and pollution improvement goal of 2021. This year’s (2021) goal is
to discard or tune 351 vehicles to improve the air pollution. As of December 2021,
666 Phase I-III large vehicles had been discarded; 1 vehicle was installed with a
smoke filter; and 194 vehicles were tuned. In total, 861 vehicles were discarded
or tuned well, indicating an achievement rate of 245.3%. This year (2021), EPA
II
has, on a regular basis, targeted Phase I to III vehicles with abnormal
applications for pollution improvement subsidy and appointed the environmental
protection bureau to conduct a follow-up investigation. As of the end of
December, this project already assisted to accomplish the investigation of 12
vehicles.
Environmental protection bureau already announced 3 stations (Taipei Bus
Station, Taipei City Hall Bus Station and Nangang Bus Station) and 6 large
parking areas (parking areas of National Palace Museum, National Revolutionary
Martyrs' Shrine, National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Yangmingshan National
Park, National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Taipei 101) as air quality
maintenance areas. Besides, starting from January 1, 2021, vehicles that do not
meet regulatory requirements and are driven in air quality maintenance areas will
be inspected and advised first. Then, starting from February 1, 2021, vehicles
that violate the regulations will be banned and reported. With respect to the
project implementation results of 2021, related inspections have been conducted
308,739 times between February and 12. Among them, the 3 stations has
accomplished 268,851 inspections through the license plate recognition system;
and the 6 parking lots has accomplished 9,046 inspections through the license
plate recognition system with regular roadside inspection. As for motorcycles,
the inspection was conducted 30,663 times. In total, 269 diesel vehicles and 149
motorcycles were reported with a reporting rate of less than 1%. This indicates
that legal procedure and means of reporting can help to enhance the control
effectiveness within the air quality maintenance areas. Besides, to monitor the air
quality thereof before and after the control, the environmental protection bureau
has sent a monitoring car to Nangang Bus Station; and an improvement was
noticed, where the PM2 .5 was reduced from 11μg/m3
to 5.8μg/m3
with an
improvement rate of 47%).
A diesel vehicle management platform, to which the inspection data can be
timely uploaded and which can monitor the site, was established in 2019. The
platform enables the environmental protection bureau to control the inspections
of diesel vehicles timely and even more effectively. The development of a
paperless system was accomplished in 2020. Besides, the internet speed has been
increased to facilitate the transmission of dynamometer monitoring and roadside
inspection images; and a new function for saving recorded images has been
developed to facilitate data storage. Now, the recorded images inside and outside
the station can be stored for at least 1 month. This year (2021), not only has the
NAS (network attached storage) system been adopted, but also the paperless
operations have been officially launched. It is expected to reduce the CO2
emission through the promotion of paperless operations, where 1 A4 paper can
reduce about 0.018 kg of CO2 emission.
As this project has managed to reduce the mobile sources of disqualified
vehicles through the inspection and vehicle tuning before inspection, it is
expected that this project has reduced about 44.08 t/year of particulate pollutants
(PM1 0) based on EPA’s recommended annual mileage.
