The Potential Car-free Development Assessment Of Taipei City And The Implementation Advice

The social development guided by private cars has caused urban environmental problems and social injustice.In many cities,there is a trend to practice car-less or carfree policies and urban development strategies.After nearly 100 years of public transportation development in Taipei City,only 12% of citizens use private cars for daily travel today.In the context of the low private car trip rate in Taipei City,this study aims to evaluate the regional car-free potential by constructing a spatial analysis model of the city's car-free potential which based on the city environmental and socialeconomic conditions.This model can improve city transport policies from operating Car-less policies to Car-free policies.This study takes Taipei City as an example.The potential car-free urban area analysis model is consisted of three main values.1)“Source” quantity.2)Road network quality.3)living community quality.The conclusions are as follows1)The analysis of potencial car-free development areas in the Taipei CityThe "source" value analyzes the spatial distribution of traffic demand.the results show that the distribution of extremely high source quantity in various administrative districts of Taipei City is scattered.In the core area,Datong District,Zhongshan District,Wanhua District is composed of high-quantity areas and extremely high-quantity areas.In the suburban,the differences in source quantities between different districts are large.The road network quality analyzes the quality and efficiency of traffic flow on the roads.The result shows that the entire Taipei City has the widest low-quality area.Very low-quality areas in the city are scattered.The extremely high-quality areas are mainly distributed in the core areas of Datong District,Zhongshan District,Songshan District,Wanhua District,while the Zhongzheng District does not have extremely high-quality areas distribution.In the suburban,there are no extremely high-quality areas distributed in Beitou District nor Nangang District.The living community quality is used to detect the vitality,convenience and livability of the regional living space.The results show that the high-quality areas are distributed in Datong District and Zhongshan District in the core area of the city.In the suburbs,Wenshan District and Shilin District have small high-value areas.Overall,the degree of car-free potential decreases from the core area outwards.The potential car-free area in Taipei is mainly in the city core area which including Datong District,Zhongshan District,Songshan District,Xinyi District.It is worth noting that some “Not suitable” areas are compassed by “Suitable” areas.Comparing the existing car-free zones with the potential car-free areas shows that they all located at “Suitable” areas at all levels.In the suburban,Beitou District and Shilin District do not qualify for operating car-free policies at any level.Mountain areas,national parks development restrictions and low-density development strategies are the main reasons why these two districts do not meet the standards.2)Compare Taipei's car-free potential areas with new public transportation developmentAccording to the MRT development plan in the next 10 years.23 new MRT stations will be constructed in “Not suitable” areas or areas lack car-free development potential.There will be no duplication or waste of public resources in the new site selection of the MRT system in the future.The new MRT station enhances the regional car-free potential.This shows the rationality of the analysis of the car-free potential area in Taipei.3)Implementation advices for improving Car-Free City development in Taipei CityBalance house prices in the core area to reduce suburbanization.In order to maintain the vitality of the core area during the day and night,while reducing the commuting distance and the amount of commuting in the suburbs.Gradually reduce citizens' dependence on private cars.The density of public service points is too concentrated.it is necessary to improve the balance of land-use mix and density of public service points between regions.In order to have the continuity and integrity of the car-free zone,“Not suitable” areas which are compassed by “Suitable” areas should be improved first.