Parks and Street Lights Office, Public Works Depar

Street Lights
I. Street Light Installation

• 　 (I) In installing street lights throughout the City, we "focus not only on the City’s downtown areas and suburbs, but on side streets, as well.". We believe that street lights play a key role in upholding the City’s safety, and in reducing crimes.

   

  　(II) In recent years, crime prevention has been a top priority of the Government. Because of this policy change, we have launched a street light installation program especially designed to protect women walking on the streets at night. On trunk and secondary roads of 15 meters or more in width, we have installed high-voltage sodium lights that are 1.5 times brighter than ordinary light bulbs.
  　(III) When Taipei first gained its status as a full-fledged city in 1967, there were only 16,307 street lights in the entire city. That figure had grown to 143,702 by the end of 2007.

II、Management and Maintenance
(I) In addition to overseeing a mobile crew assigned to deal with streetlight-related emergencies, the Street Lights Engineering Team also commands the City’s Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western Branches. Each of these four branches is responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of street lights within their respective jurisdictional areas.
(II) Nighttime maintenance is conducted on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings. In the event of street light damage due to serious traffic accidents, repairs are completed by contractors who are awarded "open-ended" contracts. This system is extremely efficient and has reduced the "brownout rate" to below 0.1875 percent.
(III) Citizens are encouraged to report damage to streetlights and other facilities. The Street Lights Engineering Team often contacts neighborhood chiefs to garner their opinions regarding streetlight-related issues; the team takes great care to efficiently attend to concerned citizens' opinions, as expressed either via the post or the Internet.

Parks and Urban Greening:
I、Parks and Green Areas
　 (I) In Taipei, some 1,019 lots of land covering 1,962 hectares are reserved for parks and green areas. By the end of 2009, we had developed 814 parks and green areas (including 42 partially- developed parks). The remaining 205 parks and green areas are currently in the planning stage, as described in the City's medium and long-term development plans.

　(II) Theme parks reflect the special features of local communities: In our planning efforts, we place a special emphasis on the establishment of theme parks that reflect the unique features of various communities, improve the townscape, and avoid urban-development repetition. For example, Taoyuan Park is currently being transformed into a Taiwanese native plants park, and Bangka Park located in front of Lungshan Temple, will become a folklore park. Our purpose is to both protect the environment and educate the citizenry. Moreover, we take great care to grow plants that attract birds and butterflies to help turn these parks into wildlife sanctuaries.

The major parks we have developed are outlined as follows：
Ａ．The "Beitou Hot Springs Park," which stretches all the way from Beitou River to New Beitou Park and Hot Springs Hell Valley. Recreational activities currently in the planning stages include water sports for children, hot springs bathing, labyrinth games and sightseeing venues.
Ｂ．The "Taipei Art Park" is an elaborately-built park intended to support the artistic activities of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. Its sculptures blend well with the landscape, and the art displays embodies water-related themes and the staging of flower shows. The Park's lawns are also suitable for all types of recreational activities. Simply put, the Taipei Art Park is a very “special” park, indeed.

II、Street Greening and Landscaping
　 (I) Trees, particularly pest-resistant species known to be suitable for cities, have been planted in most of the city's red-brick sidewalks having a width of 2.5 meters, in accordance with the City's greening efforts. The types of trees planted include Indian laurel figs, camphor trees, red cedar trees, Cajuput trees, and Formosan sweet gum trees.
　(II) Taipei City, aside from its greening efforts, is taking great strides in making its roads more attractive. Flowers, foliage plants and flowering shrubs have been planted on safety islands and traffic circles along major roads to make the city more lively and attractive. Flowers have also been arranged in intricate patterns on lawns bordering trunk streets linking Taipei City with other parts of the country. The idea is to promote Taipei's qualities as a truly cosmopolitan city.
　(III) We will continue the conducting of a "Facade Greening Campaign". Vines will be grown along the sides or facades of the City's river embankments, tunnel entrances, overpasses, bridges, underpass entrances and other areas. The purpose of these measures is to soften Taipei's image as a concrete jungle.

　(IV)In addition to greening, landscaping also forms an integral part of the Government's effort to make Taipei a more beautiful city. We emphasize growing flowers and plants in parks, and organize flower shows from time to time to provide comfortable public areas where citizens can relax.

III、Maintenance of Parks and Street-side Trees
　 (I) District Offices are responsible for the maintenance of parks with an area of less than one hectare. Other parks are managed by various Park Management Divisions.
　(II) The Horticulture Engineering Team is responsible for the maintenance of street side trees and green areas.

　(III) We encourage private companies and the general public to participate in community service by voluntarily assuming responsibility for the upkeep of parks, street side trees, and green areas. To date, more than 192 parks and green areas have been adopted by private organizations and individuals.