The old city is now a parking lot.

When I was still a high school student in Taiwan, I used to be able to go around the city anywhere with a bicycle in 20 minutes. I can also walk around; usually, it takes 40-50 minutes. It was always a good exercise to walk, and the air quality was good.

Not any more !! There are cars and motorcycles everywhere. Streets are usually narrow; they can only accommodate cars and motorcycles, not for the bikers and the walkers. How about the sidewalks like the sidewalks on College Ave in Appleton, WI? Sadly, there are no more sidewalks in Chang-Hua City!! Residents now use the "sidewalks" to park their motorcycles (See the attached first photo). Some of the sidewalks have become 'permanent-farm-market-selling-stands' selling everything from food, vegetable, fruits, to clothes. The city is such that if you don't have a car or a motorcycle, you cannot go around anywhere in the city. Automobiles in Chang-Hua City are now contributing to the global warming, air pollution, and poor living quality with the modern evils, automobiles. The good old days are gone.

How does this situation get started? Here is a brief history overview of the society transformation. During the economic boom in the 80s, a few very rich Taiwanese started to purchase automobiles to impress their neighbors and to show-off their social status. Later, when cars become affordable to mid-income families in Taiwan in the 90s, and when the oil was still very cheap, and when the politicians who were busy in making laws to build infrastructures such as freeway to make mid-income to high-income voters happy, the number of car-owners increases explosively causing this traffic congestion. Taiwan had tried to imitate the American automobile-transport society model but ends up in a much more miserable state than America. Even America today is trying everything to encourage biking or walking around the city, I don't see this change in Chang-Hua in a foreseeable future.

We have to blame the policy makers for their short-sights to enact many policies that encouraging automobile sales in Taiwan. The policy makers did not realize that in early days, Taiwan already had infrastructure for mass-transport; Taiwan doesn't need to be transformed into an automobile-based society. The law makers could have learned from those of Singapore that makes automobile license purchase very expensive so that few citizens owns automobiles. I would have to say that the politicians in Taiwan did not do their jobs well; every citizen of the city is now suffering from the consequences of bad decisions.

Photo illustrations: First photo shows that Chang-Hua residents use old side-walk as motorcycle parking lot; second photo shows the traffic scene of the intersection from the free way to the local traffic.