Taipei City’s business activities are abundant. Traffic is very heavy during the rush hour and weekends in Taipei City or between Taipei City and New Taipei City. Although Taipei City has the best public transport network in Taiwan, most citizens choose to ride motorcycles on account of convenience.As a result, to improve the ambient air quality, the mobile pollution must be controlled effectively.
In FY 2021, the Environmental Inspection Division, Department of Environmental Protection, Taipei City Government commissioned Envimac Technology and Consultants Corporation to implement the “Taipei City Plan for Strengthening Auditing of Air Pollutants Emitted by Mobile Pollution Sources (Motorcycles).” The Plan implementation period was from January 19, 2021, to December 31, 2021.
The Level 3 alert for COVID-19 has been implemented first in Taipei City and New Taipei City since May 15, 2021. On May 19, 2021, the government raised the COVID-19 alert to Level 3 nationwide due to the severe epidemic. For working from home, the average traffic flow from May to June was 23.1% less than January to April in 2021 and 17.3% less than the same period in 2020. The Environmental Protection Administration announced on June 3, 2021, that periodic inspection and re-inspection extended until December 31, 2021.
Follow the preventive instructions, night noise inspection and double-registered-mail have been suspended since late May. As a result, the schedule was delayed, and periodic inspection completion rate was affected.
On July 27, 2021, Nationwide COVID-19 alert lowered to Level 2. Follow the instruction of the inspection team, roadside inspections resumed. The contract order was changed in agreement with the agency. 38,380 ordinary mails substituted the remaining 6,678 double-registered-mails. Therefore, the number of the ordinary mails was required to be 138,380. In October, with the cooperation of Taipei city policy of the raising subsidy of old scooter elimination and purchase, the ordinary mails of the month were cancelled. Part of the postage was paid by this plan. 119,759 ordinary mails were sent eventually. The goal of periodic inspection completion rate (83%) was modified to over 73.5%.
The statistical data were as of December 31, 2021. The descriptions of the summary of results are as follows.
A. Irregular roadside inspections
The plan implementation completion rate was 100%. 15,323 roadside inspections which contained 5,138 motorcycles that underwent periodic inspection had been performed. The failure roadside inspections were 1,517 and the failure rate was 9.9%. Cross-checking against the motorcycle periodic inspection database showed that 4,973 of the motorcycles in question or uninspected were subsequently brought in for re-inspection, giving a re-inspection rate of 74.7%.
B. License plate recognition
License plate recognition technology was used to record motorcycles on Taipei City roads on 100,851 occasions. Of these, there were 51,284 instances of a license plate number appearing only once, giving a repeat rate of 49.1%. 35.6% of the motorcycles in question were registered in Taipei City and 64.4% of the motorcycles in question were registered in other cities. Neihu was the district with the largest number of motorcycles registered in Taipei City. Datong was the district with the largest number of motorcycles registered in other cities.
C. Reminder notifications
349,644 second reminder notifications were sent to the owners of uninspected (overdue) motorcycles registered in Taipei City. The cumulative rate of completed inspection was 51.2%. If each completed inspection rate is equal to 6,600 motorcycles, the completed inspection rate would increase about 27.1%. After the second reminder notifications, if the motorcycle was still uninspected, double-registered-mail would be sent for the inspection within a definite time. Infraction Judgment and Penalties would be enforced afterwards. The statistical data were as follows. 6,156 first double-registered-mails were sent and the cumulative rate of completion of the inspection was 49.7%. 1,166 second double-registered-mail were sent to the owners of uninspected (6 months overdue) motorcycles according to law. The cumulative rate of completion of the inspection was 44.3%. 69 registrations were cancelled at last.
Uninspected 361 motorcycles with two-stroke or four stroke engine which was produced more than 10 years, were rejected after second reminder notifications were sent. The cumulative rate of completion of the inspection was 20% increased.
D. Inspection in air quality protection zones
The first air quality protection zone which contained 3 stations at 6 places in Taipei city has been delimited since January 1, 2021. 30,664 motorcycles were inspected and 149 motorcycles were denounced. The rate of completion of the inspection was 99.5%.
E. Periodic inspection completion rate
According to an announcement issued by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), the total number of motorcycles registered in Taipei City as of December 31, 2021, which were required to undergo periodic inspection was 659,028. The actual number of motorcycles that have underwent periodic inspection was 503,612, representing a periodic inspection completion rate of 76.42%.
F. Noise inspections
The execution of noise inspection with the inspection team were from 9:30 A.M. to 11:30 A.M. and 1：30 P.M. to 4：00 P.M. on Wednesday and Saturday, and 10：00 P.M. to 12：00 A.M. on Friday and Saturday. Follow the preventive instructions, night noise inspection has been suspended since late May. In August. noise inspection resumed. As of December 31, 2021, 121 noise inspection sessions were executed.
G. Roadside inspections when poor air quality
Roadside inspection was executed with the inspection team when the Air Quality index (AQI) was over or reached to 100. As of December 31, 2021, 29 roadside inspections sessions were executed.
