Thursday, January 26, 2006

The New Intercity Bus Station in Taipei


I went home yesterday after listen to Linda Arrigo's talk via the spanking new intercity bus terminal near the train station. It is a pretty good example of the way the technological preference for order and control that has taken over Taiwan undermines and eliminate everything that is human.

The new station is certainly convenient and clean, but it is too small for the number of companies that it serves. Each company has exactly the same size desk, and each terminal is numbered with exactly the same size signs, so that it is difficult to tell what is what -- it is about as ergonomic as an electric chair. In other cities the bus stations are a useful anarchy of bus company representatives, vendors, and convenience stores, where a variety of human needs can be served, from a fat barbecued sausage to thin condoms. Sure it is dirty and cluttered, but after many years here, I often find a reassuring humanity in all that anarchy, even when it irritates me. In the new station in Taipei, a single convenience store company has the concession, selling identical crap food. If you want something different, a long walk is necessitated, since there is nothing next to the bus station. No doubt it will win much praise from visitors, but it seems that in Taiwan, progress has found no way to incorporate the human in its vision of the future world.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Living as I do close to Tsaoma (the area on Chungkang Rd, near the SYS freeway), I have to disagree with you. What you view as an interesting and lively cultural immersion another (like this neighbor) see as another eyesore. It's all very cute until you have to look at it everyday. I'd love to have it all moved into a clean and sanitary complex, preferably underground.

Michael Turton said...

Right, I agree that Tsaoma (where all the buses) is a problem, but it doesn't follow that the answer to Tsaoma is a cookie cutter terminal. What you need is a space that answers the need for different kinds of services and for different bus companies to have their own separate identities. It's like the new Shih Lin and Miaokow Night markets, or the drive you see in so many Taiwan towns to bring order to the world by making all the signage identical. Arrgh!

Michael

Anonymous said...

I know what you're saying about the bus company booths, sameness, sterility etc. But then I recall those horrible food courts they made in Singapore and KL. It's really tough to make a facility or an environment that's both clean and 'local'. Those two goals seem to be mutually exclusive. Given the choice I'll take clean every time.

Anonymous said...

Is this need for order layed at the feet of the Chinese, the Japanese influence on Taiwan, or the patriarchy at large?

In any event, Taiwan was never known for its architecture.