Taoyuan City Government Leverages Big Data for Crowd Dispersal
Mayor Simon Chang Encourages Efficient Measures for the Taiwan Lantern Festival
During a municipal meeting this morning (8th), Mayor Simon Chang highlighted the complexities of coordinating traffic flow and crowd dispersal for large-scale events. Reflecting on the successful management of crowd dispersal during last year's (2024) Taoyuan New Year’s Eve Concert and the Mayday concert series, which benefited from strong interdepartmental collaboration, he praised the significant achievements. With the 2025 Taiwan Lantern Festival set to take place in Taoyuan this February, Mayor Chang encouraged all departments to maintain their collaborative spirit and leverage big data analytics to optimize crowd dispersal capacity, ensuring smooth operations throughout the event.
Mayor Simon Chang highlighted that during the 2019 Mayday concerts held in Taoyuan, the average time required for crowd dispersal was 44 minutes per event. However, during last year’s six-day Mayday concert series, efficient measures such as precise scheduling of additional train services by Taoyuan Metro Corporation, coordination with railway operators and parking space planning by the Department of Transportation, as well as the deployment of additional police forces by the Taoyuan Police Department, reduced the dispersal time to just 26 minutes, achieving a 40% decrease.
The mayor further emphasized the impressive achievements of last year’s Taoyuan New Year’s Eve event, which coincided with a Mayday concert. Taoyuan Metro Corporation recorded a historic high of 195,600 passengers in a single day, marking the highest daily ridership to date. Taoyuan Metro Corporation leveraged meticulous data analysis to manage the nearly 200,000 passengers, estimating critical metrics such as the “walking time from the concert venue to the station” and “peak travel periods.” This enabled the proactive optimization of train scheduling, with a total of 35 additional services precisely added to enhance crowd dispersal capacity.
In addition, Mayor Simon Chang further emphasized that beyond Taoyuan Metro’s precise scheduling adjustments, the Department of Transportation and the Police Department also played vital roles. The Department of Transportation coordinated with central authorities to secure additional services from Taiwan Railways and Taiwan High Speed Rail and planned parking spaces in surrounding areas. Meanwhile, the Police Department deployed a large number of officers and volunteer traffic assistants to manage traffic control, ensuring smooth traffic flow around the event venues and significantly boosting crowd dispersal capacity. As the upcoming Taiwan Lantern Festival approaches, Mayor Chang assured that the city government will implement high-quality crowd dispersal measures, ensuring smooth passage for all visitors and delivering the best experience in Taoyuan.
