Department of Information and Tourism, Taipei City Government

Open data has been an important long-term policy for the Taipei City Government. In recent years, Mayor Ko has constantly asked Taipei City Government (hereinafter referred to as “TCG”) agencies to improve the availability and access to open data. Furthermore, in order to encourage the outside use of government data, the Research, Development and Research Commission enacted the Operation Guidelines Governing Incentive Rewards for Research Using Taipei City Government Data in 2016, which was changed to the Taipei City Government Operation Guidelines Governing Incentive Rewards for Research Using Open Data on August 28, 2019. The applications for the incentive rewards are accepted and reviewed between September and December every year. For the 2022 competition, the rewards are granted to 5 research papers after an application document review and a discussion meeting. Deputy Mayor Cheng-sheng Pong presented the prizes to the winning teams and expressed appreciation for their efforts at the Taipei City Executive Meeting yesterday (November 8, 2022).

The issues the 5 winning papers discuss include transportation, architecture, urban development, public policies, etc. The paper receiving the Top Excellence Prize investigates the key factors affecting the use of automatic payment transfers for the motor vehicle fuel tax. It analyzes the background of the vehicle owners applying for automatic payment, the banks for the electronic withdrawal, application time, types of vehicles, etc. The Excellence Prize goes to the paper discussing urban spatial structures in the context of assorted big data. It uses open data to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the passenger volume of the Taipei Metro. It also examines the attributes of Taipei City development based on TOD typologies and analyzes the regulations of the Ministry of the Interior and the TCG governing the arcade leveling projects. The results of both papers are valuable references for the policy making and implementation of the TCG.

TCG thanks all the participating research teams and will continue the open data policy and the rewards competition, hoping to attract more researchers to use the data. The research results and researchers’ suggestions are references for the city administration and helpful for the improvement of governance efficiency.