A few days ago, I wondered how parking tickets were handed to offending motorists in a large Asian metropolis. And I had my answer the day after, while walking around in the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial area in central Taipei.
It was a middle-aged lady on a bicycle! Despite the ragged look of our supposed parking agent, she carried an electronic device like our local agents, and issued tickets that were very real.
I don’t know if it’s a standard practice there, but a regular bike is the perfect vehicle for such work in a crowded city like Taipei, which narrow streets would not suit very well cars that make frequent stops. A scooter probably would not have been an economical (or ecological) choice to cover small areas, especially to fine consecutively parked vehicles. If you look more closely into the agent’s basket, there was an EasyCard, Taipei’s transit chip card. The surgical mask: for health or privacy purposes?