TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — In response to a Facebook page that described Taiwan to be a "living hell for pedestrians," a high school teacher has coordinated with engineers and hundreds of volunteers to create a color-coded map that ranks the safety for pedestrians in specific roadways in cities and counties across the nation.
Since Han Chung-mei (韓中梅) launched the "commusidewalk" app in December, more than 700 volunteers have submitted 3,141 photos with 1,282 annotations, reported ETtoday. All counties and cities in Taiwan now have records, while only Penghu and Kinmen counties are yet to have entries.
Map shows Taipei City and New Taipei City. (commusidewalk screenshot)
After uploading the image and a description, volunteers must confirm whether the time and location are correct and then check the conditions of the road section. Criteria include whether there is space for pedestrians, protection for pedestrians, original width, occupancy situation, maximum dynamic risk, and purpose of use.
The introduction of the official website also mentions "We have designed a set of formulas based on the labeled items to calculate the sidewalk quality score." Red represents very poor, while green indicates conditions are good.
Map of Hsinchu County showing numerous red dots. (commusidewalk screenshot)
The chart page provides a bar chart that compares the quantity of data and quality of sidewalks in Taiwan's cities and counties. From the chart, it can be seen there are currently differences in the quality of sidewalks among counties, towns, urban areas, and villages.
Administrative districts that do not yet have data have not been included in the chart. Zooming into the map, it quickly becomes apparent that New Taipei City, Taipei City, Taoyuan City, Hsinchu County, Taichung City, and Kaohsiung City have more data.
Map of Kaohsiung. (commusidewalk screenshot)
Hsinchu County has a relatively higher number of red dots compared to other areas. There are also large clusters of red dots in Keelung City, Taipei City, New Taipei City, Taoyuan City, Taichung, and Kaohsiung City.
