Motion Digest Network

Taiwan’s second largest city, Kaohsiung, is set to launch the Kaohsiung Strategies for the Future of Urban Mobility as it hosts the EcoMobility World Festival 2017 next month.

The Kaohsiung Strategies is slated for launch on October 4th during the month-long festival. Among others, the 12-point framework pledges to prioritise liveability and seamless connectivity in urban planning so as to promote sustainable urban mobility. It incorporates the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda as strategies for local mobility policies.

Sustainable Urban Transportation

The aim, according to the organisers, is to inspire local governments to transform their transportation systems and mobility patterns towards a future with less automobile dependency, lower carbon footprint and more sustainable, people-centric systems as part of global efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions and limit global temperature increase to below 2 °C per the Paris Climate Agreement.

It was drafted based on Shared Passenger Mobility Principles, a joint document by 13 organisations. It aims to push a strong message on urban mobility and climate to the United Nations’ Climate Conference COP 23 in Bonn, Germany in November 2017.

EcoMobility World Fest

Kaohsiung is hosting the third edition of the biannual EcoMobility World Festival, which was first held in Suwon, South Korea in 2013 and in Johannesburg in 2015. The Festival is organised with the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, an international association of local governments committed to sustainable development.

The upcoming launch of the Kaohsiung Strategies is fitting given Taiwan’s push towards sustainable urban mobility as part of efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions from 428 metric tons of CO2 equivalent to 214 metric tons by 2030. The targeted 50% reduction is sizeable given its prevailing personal car ownership culture.

Among others, it has been promoting bike-sharing since 2011 via homegrown scheme YouBike, which had put Taipei on track to building 500km of cycling network. The aim, by 2018, is to provide citizens access to a YouBike station within 10 minutes from anywhere in the city.

Taiwan is also promoting electric scooter via homegrown Gogoro, dubbed the “Tesla of scooters”. Earlier this year, Taiwan did test runs of the EasyMile EZ10 driverless shuttle via a collaboration between National Taiwan University (NTU) and global consultancy firm 7Starlake.

The Taiwanese example of how authorities can pursue sustainable mobility may boost the adoption of the Kaohsiung Strategies when it is launched. That would further pave the way for green commuting in our urban areas, which contributes to global efforts to arrest dangerous climate changes in recent decades that threaten our future.

The Kaohsiung Strategies for The Future of Urban Mobility

We:

1. Plan our cities and their mobility together
2. Prioritise people over vehicles
3. Support the shared and efficient use of vehicles, lanes, curbs and land
4. Promote equity
5. Support fair user fees
6. Work towards integration and seamless connectivity
7. Lead the transition towards a zero emission and renewable energy transport future
8. Support that autonomous vehicles (AVs) in urban areas should be operated only in shared fleets
9. Protect the air space of our cities
10. Apply the sustainability principles for moving goods: green freight and ecologistics
11. Engage with stakeholders
12. Prepare our local governments for mobility in the future