The Progression of Bikeways Policy Change in Taiwan

Abstract

This study examined the development of the bikeway policy which was promoted by the Taiwanese government from 2002 to 2021. Identifying the degree and types of policy dynamics, our analytical framework is based on that of three detection indicators of policy change, namely organization, legal framework, and budget as proposed by Hogwood and Peters (1983). Regarding the research method, a major goal of this study was to synthesize evidence by reviewing references of documentary materials. The findings revealed that from 2002 to 2007, the type of overall policy change was biased towards policy innovation, from 2008 to 2016, the type of overall policy change was between policy succession and policy innovation, and from 2017 to 2021, the type of overall policy change was biased towards policy succession. This study concluded that local bikeways were built because of the needs for urban or township development, and they have driven the trend of opening up bikeways throughout Taiwan. The trend of bikeway construction plans is closely related to the national policies of development. Moreover, cross-departmental cooperation enabled the bikeway policies to work successfully. Importantly, the support of policy makers or high-level decision makers, and the emergence of specialized bikeway organizations are key factors contributing to the development of bikeways in Taiwan.

1. Introduction

“You can ride a bicycle in a bikeway which contains rich natural landforms and admire the scenery along the way. While you enjoy the slight breeze of fresh air stir across your face, just keep the breathtaking scenery in your mind”. This is the impression of most foreign tourists who have visited Taiwan. The variety of landforms in Taiwan creates a unique geographical and cultural outlook. Based on these, the government has developed many bikeways, and cyclists can experience the cultures and landscapes in depth. Therefore, it has attracted the attention of several international media organizations, such as CNN, BBC and NHK. In 2012, the cycling route of Sun Moon Lake in Nantou County was selected as the fifth most beautiful bikeway in the world by CNNGO, a travel website under CNN. Not only that, it also reported that riding a bike was all the rage in Taiwan; it was selected as the ninth best tourist destination in the world by the world-renowned travel magazine Lonely Planet. One of the award-winning indicators is the perfect bikeway facilities. In fact, the development of bikeways in Taiwan was not achieved overnight, It had to be properly planned, and the public policy research had to be completed in advance.

Actually, the origin of bikeways can be traced back to the construction of a leisure bikeway on the high riverbank in Taipei city from 1990 to 2002. After that, bikeways were constructed to combine with the mass rapid transit (MRT) system so that bicycles could be used for leisure and commuting at the same time. Therefore, we can see Taipei city as the earliest area to promote the construction of bikeways. In 1997, coordinating with national development policy, the government constructed a bikeway mainly for sightseeing and leisure activities around Guanshan Town in Taitung County, with the objective of developing the tourism industry with bikeways and helping address the twin issues of industrial depression and population emigration.

As local governments devoted resources to constructing bikeways and with the successful cases of the bikeways described above, the Sports Affairs Council (SAC) of Executive Yuan first proposed a national bikeway construction project in 2002. In 2009, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) proposed the concept of combining the bikeway network with public transportation systems such as highways and railways. Eastern Taiwan was used as a demonstration area at first; then a round-island cycling network was built with this concept in 2014. Cycling Route No. 1 is the well-known bikeway. With the rapid development of bikeway construction, the size of the bikeway network has been continuously expanded. According to official statistics, the length of bikeways for different purposes such as commuting and tourism already extend for more than 7900 km; both the utilization rate and the network density of bikeways are on the rise in Taiwan [1]. The current bikeway network in Taiwan is shown in Figure 1 [2].

In retrospect, bikeway policies in Taiwan have been affected by international issues such as environmental protection, energy saving and carbon reduction. In recent years, these issues have also had a great impact on related policies such as the promotion and construction of bikeways and cycling that the government mandates. Why is the government committed to developing bikeways and promoting cycling as a sport-for-all? Is there any connection between construction of bikeways and sports policies promoted by the government over the years? If the policy changes, will the interactions between the main policy makers, executive branch officials and external institutional factors change as well? This study uses the indicators and types of policy change proposed by Hogwood and Peters [3] to answer these questions and analyze and summarize relevant literature and data for bikeways, thereby explaining the situation of policy change in Taiwan.

2. Literature Review

Policy change refers to the situation in which a new or revised policy replaces an existing one. All operational policies are dynamic; a policy may be changed after it is formulated due to political and social complexities. Few policies have remained the same since they were adopted and implemented [3,4,5,6]. In the past two decades, there have been more and more empirical studies using different theories of policy change, such as the multi-stream framework or the advocacy coalition framework, to explain issues of diplomacy, education, public policy, social welfare, etc., and the case study method has been used for overall research. Houlihan and Green [7] used the theories of the multi-stream framework and the advocacy coalition framework and the documents that professional organizations or government departments publish to explain the political importance of change on school sports and physical education in the UK after the 1990s.

In recent years, some of the literature has examined sport-for-all and competitive athletics (elite sports). For example, Park [8] used the framework proposed by Green and Houlihan to explore the process of policy change in the elites of track and field, archery and baseball in Korea and found that while the advocacy coalition framework, the multi-stream model, and the policy network framework provided a partial understanding of elite sports processes, none provided a comprehensive explanation of the policy change of these sports. Tan [8] studied the extent of change in China’s national fitness policy using the five indicators of policy change proposed by Hogwood and Peters [3] and Juang [5], and elite theory was adopted as the analytical framework. Tan [9] pointed out that the People’s Republic of China identified fitness as an important sport for the goal of becoming a modern leading sports nation. Zheng, Chen, Tan, and Lau [10] explored the sports policies of China. They introduced the organizational structure and analyzed the role of the government in China’s elite sports system and reported that the government has rapidly developed elite sports, mass sports, sport specialization and sporting events in recent years. Sports have been valued by the government and have become a prominent industry in China.

With regard to raising the profile of Taiwanese elite sports, the Taiwanese government considers that international sports are not only another kind of diplomatic battlefield but a good way to show the modernity of Taiwan and to promote an image of a dynamic Taiwan to the whole world [11] (p. 33). It is widely accepted that sports and politics have historically existed within some form of “interdependent” or “symbiotic” relationship, especially mega-sports events [12]. The relationship between sports and politics is one of the most enduring and pervasive social relationships affecting sports. As Zheng [13] mentioned, politicization is the main feature of sports development. Most of the above conclusions in the literature have suggested that the promotion of elite sports and sport-for-all is closely related to national policies or politics. The success of sports policy has important implications for promoting a nation’s international (or political) standing. Furthermore, in Taiwan, bicycle routes and bicycle tourism developments have been integrated into sustainable development and transport polices, leading to the development of well-planned regional routes [14]. The economic, social and environmental values of bicycle touring and leisure cycling have led planners and policy makers to finance, plan and develop bicycle-related infrastructure in their communities and to promote tourism [15]. The expansion of the bikeway network also offers a chance to enhance connectivity among residential areas; that is, building bikeways includes the functions of tourism, transportation and sports.

Several researchers have considered economic, social and political influences as important factors for policy change in sports, and executors also play a key role in affecting policy change. Some Taiwanese researchers considered these factors as the subject of sports policy change. For example, the phenomenon and process of sports policy changes, such as analyzing the central government’s budgets for sports administrative organizations over the years, have been discussed by several authors [16,17,18]. The results showed that sports administrative organizations adjust policy goals on the basis of social, economic and political factors in different periods and try to be in line with current national policies and social needs. Organizational changes accentuate policy directions and are also an important factor affecting policy changes. The organization is the entity that implements the policy, and the level of personnel involved in the organization may affect the direction of the policy; therefore, observing whether there are changes at the organizational level among policies is also a good way to explore policy change. Tsai [19] discussed the types, levels and influencing factors of policy change in sport-for-all from 1973 to 2012, and the results pointed out that policy succession is the main type of the policy change. Several research studies used the theoretical indicators that Hogwood and Peters proposed to explore the policy changes of the “Sports Island Plan”. The results showed that although there are significant changes in the two indicators of organization and budget, it had not successfully solved the unfavorable factors of the sport-for-all policy in Taiwan [20,21].

The advantage of the theoretical framework proposed by Hogwood and Peters [3] is that the complex and diverse process of policy change is divided into three specific indicators: organization, legal framework and budget to analyze policy content. On the basis of the three indicators, the types of policy change are divided into four: policy innovation (the government develops a different plan without existing organizations, laws, budget or other supports), policy succession (continuation of existing policies, with only minor changes), policy maintenance (adjustment or revisions to maintain its orientation and function to achieve the goal of the original policy), and policy termination (cancellation of policy-related organizations, statutes, budget and activities). These classifications make it easier for researchers to observe policy changes over the years. In fact, the process of the policy cycle may not be necessarily progress from the initial stage to the final stage one by one; it may be many continuous adjustments during the time. Not every policy is an innovative type; it may be a continuation or variant of the old policy. Thus, Hogwood and Peters [22] (p. 226) reported that “most policy making is actually policy succession: the replacement of an existing policy, program or organization by another”. Therefore, Hogwood and Peters [3] (pp. 26–27) considered that policy succession occurred more often than innovation, and policy termination occurred less often. When researchers try to describe policy change in practice, they may find it difficult to refer to a single ideal type [22] (p. 231). Based on this theory, de Lovinfosse [23] mentioned that any policy change contains one or more elements of policy change. Any given policy change will be located in a dimension in which the ideal types form the polar extremes (innovation–succession, succession–maintenance, maintenance–termination, etc.).

Previous studies have been published on policy changes; most of the themes are elite sports, sport-for-all, and school sports. These scholars have made significant contributions to various sports policy fields; however, few studies have reported on policy change in specific sports. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the policy change of bikeways in Taiwan.

3. Methods

The study seeks to understand the development of bikeways in Taiwan which is regarding the advancement of policy change. The development process of bikeway policy in Taiwan can be considered an example of the continuous transition from policy innovation to policy succession. To describe the extent of policy change on this topic, documentary and archival sources offer excellent opportunities for political scientists to develop novel accounts and interpretations of significant events [24]. Through examination of the references and considering the nature and scale of relevant resources, a document review was adopted to collect data for analysis and verification. To construct novel accounts and interpretations of key events, several documentary sources were collected/used, including government meeting minutes, administrative documents, annual reports, media coverage and press commentaries related to the relevant issues of the establishment/development of bikeways in Taiwan.

In this vein, the review was conducted through a comprehensive search of references published since 2002. The limited research scope of the 2002 to 2021 period was selected not because it is typical in any sense but rather because it contains the government’s [Sports Affairs Council (SAC) of the Executive Yuan] inaugural national bikeway construction project “Planning and establishment of bikeway systems in Taiwan” in 2002. In total, 11 official government documents, which mainly included reports from the government’s promotion of bikeway’s policies and construction plans from 2002 to 2021 in Taiwan, were reviewed (See

Table 1. The project of policies and plans related to bikeways proposed by the government over the years.

Year	Administrative Unit	Project
2002	Sports Affairs Council, SAC	Planning and establishment of bikeway systems in Taiwan
2002	The Executive Yuan	Challenge 2008 national development plan: doubling tourist arrivals plan
2006	The Executive Yuan	Thousands of miles of bikeways and thousands of miles of footpaths plan
2009	Tourism Bureau, MOTC	Eastern Bikeway Network Demonstration Project: cooperating with energy saving and carbon reduction
2011	Ministry of Transportation and Communication (MOTC)	Western Bikeway Network Demonstration Project: cooperating with energy saving and carbon reduction
2012	Sports Administration, MOE	Construction plan of the overall road network of bikeways
2014	Ministry of Transportation and Communication (MOTC)	Overall planning of the national environmentally friendly network of bikeways and bicycle network construction plan of MOTC
2017	Sports Administration, MOE	Construction plan of the overall road network of bikeways (Revised)
2017	Sports Administration, MOE	Forward-looking infrastructure development program: urban and rural infrastructure; creating friendly bikeways
2019	Ministry of Transportation and Communication (MOTC)	Upgrade cycling route and multi-route integration promotion plan
2021	Ministry of Transportation and Communication (MOTC)	Upgrade cycling route and multi-route integration promotion plan (Revised)

). Meanwhile, the researchers analyzed 18 media and press commentaries, with particular items selected from newspapers and magazines reflecting a range of bikeways interests.

Subsequently, documentary resources were coded using the Nvivo 9 qualitative data analysis software package, and coding and analysis were undertaken by employing an ethnographic content analysis approach to document its claim to reflect experiences of the phenomena by reference to the collected data. The researchers identified concepts and approaches helpful for guiding decisions regarding the selection of crucial events and the selection of applicable documents to review. Meanwhile, a coding frame was constructed that deductively drew on the reviewed concepts. In accordance with Hogwood and Peters’ theoretical arguments [3], broadly, the items derived were assigned to three major categories: organization, legal framework and budget and other relevant keywords of “bicycle”, “bikeway” and “policy change”. In the following paragraphs, the insights of policy change will be presented following brief introductions to each indicator, respectively. We read the contents of the documents we collected in detail and then discussed and commented on how the three indicators in each project have changed. After the analysis of each indicator, the extent of change will be illustrated according to the innovation–succession dimension.

4. Discussion

4.1. Organization

Organizations are entities that implement policies, and their establishment and abolition are specific and explicit. Therefore, organizations are a good unit of analysis to explore policy change [3]. Moreover, the structure of government organizations will be adjusted in response to policy changes [4]. While implementing the policy, the establishment, dissolution and adjustment of an organization can be used as a specific indicator to observe the changes in the policy. In particular, the establishment of an organization in conjunction with the promotion of a plan can better show the extent of government attention. Tan, Cheng, Lee and Ko [25] reported that there are two Taiwanese national government agencies for sports: the Sports Affairs Council (SAC) under the Executive Yuan and the Department of Physical Education (DPE) under the Ministry of Education. The former focuses on elite sports and sport-for-all and the latter is in charge of school sports.

From the perspective of bikeway policy, since the SAC proposed the concept of a national bikeway network in 2002, local governments have successively started the planning and construction of bikeways. Meanwhile, the central government established a dedicated organization to review the proposals of local governments. However, it is not an organization dedicated to bikeway coordination with the national plan. As a result, there are different building standards for bikeways in various places. Until 2009, the MOTC proposed a plan “Eastern Bikeway Network Demonstration Project—cooperating with energy saving and carbon reduction”. To implement the plan effectively, a new organization “Eastern Bikeway Network Demonstration Project Supervision Group” was formed to act as a bridge between the central and the local government. Although it is a task-oriented organization and only set up for the plan, this is the first time that the central government has set up a special organization for bikeway policy. At the same time, the group also inspected and adjusted the routes of bikeways and integrated the bikeways with railways and highways to implement route connection and improvement of surrounding facilities. Above all, as Juang [5] reported, the structure of government organizations will be adjusted in response to policy change. Then the bikeway projects in 2011, 2014, and 2019 continued this model to form a project supervision group.

According to Huang and Tan [21], an organization is an entity used for policy delivery and implementation. The establishment, consolidation, elevation and degradation or dissolution of an institution can often indicate changes of policy. Thus, changes in organizations often mark changes in policy. Using the indicator of organization in bikeway policy, we can notice that since the Project Supervision Group was formed in 2009, cross-departmental collaboration has made the plan more perfect, bridging the gap between various departments and local governments, setting standards for the construction of bikeways and promoting the revision of relevant statutes so that the associated facilities of bikeways will be more complete; this had not been the case in the past. So, the establishment of an organization called the Project Supervision Group constitutes an example of policy change in bikeway planning and implementation. However, it would be difficult to decide whether or not the bikeway’s policy has changed on the basis of the indicator of organization. To see the whole picture of policy change, we need to probe more deeply into the policies of bikeways in relation to the other two indicators.

4.2. Legal Framework

Hogwood and Peters [3] considered that in the implementation of any policy, a legal basis is needed to legitimize policies. Therefore, when examining changes in the legal framework of policy delivery, we should monitor not only the activity of legislative bodies but also the making of secondary legislation such as regulations, executive orders, statutory instruments, etc. The amendments to regulations also reflect the changes and needs of policies, and these are one of the important indicators when observing policy change. In the early stage of the development of bikeways in Taiwan, the construction of bikeways was mostly attached to the national infrastructure plan; most of the local bikeways were built in urban neighborhoods or villages and on riverbanks. Therefore, since the SAC proposed to construct a national bikeway network in 2002, the government successively revised regulations such as “Regulations for the periodical overall review of Urban Planning”, “Regulations on River Management”, “The Standards of Urban Roads and Accessory Works”, “Rural Rejuvenation Act” and “Regulations for the periodical overall review of Urban Planning” to ensure the construction of a particular bikeway was legal. The Sports Administration also made amendments to the administrative rules in response to the proposal of the bikeway’s construction plan, including “Directions on application subsidy for the overall planning and construction of bikeways network in 2011” and “the Sports Administration Guidelines Governing Budget for the Subsidy of the Construction (Renovation) of Sports Facilities of Direct Municipalities and County (City) Governments”.

As the SAC proposed the establishment of a national bikeway network, local governments started to construct bikeways. Although there is a manual reference for the construction of bikeways, there is still a lack of the regulations for bikeway settings and traffic safety. Since 2006, the MOTC has revised the “The Regulations for Road Traffic Signs, Markings, and Signals” especially for signs and lane lines of bikeways. In 2007, the level of changes in regulations was further improved, and the second Paragraph of Article 58 of the “Highway Law” was added. In the same year, the “Act Governing the Punishment of Violation of Road Traffic Regulations” was also revised, and bicycles were included in the category of slow vehicles so that the right-of-way for bicycles was clearly defined. During this period, the Institute of Transportation of MOTC held a forum named “Important Issues for Promoting Bikeway Systems”. Relevant ministries, local governments and non-governmental organizations were invited to discuss the establishment of bikeways. Among them, the Traffic Engineering Office and the Department of Transportation of Taipei City Government both suggested that the central government should formulate guidelines for constructing bikeways as soon as possible. It also prompted the MOTC to continue to make amendments to the “The Regulations for Road Traffic Signs, Markings, and Signals” and “Traffic Regulation”. The above laws have been continuously revised and various details added due to the construction of bikeways. In addition to indicating the reform or need of bikeway policy, it also revealed significant policy changes in the legal framework.

4.3. Budget

The available budget is also a means of measuring policy change and its extent [3]. The budget listed by the government can show the short-term, long-term and specific period of policy priorities. It is also an indicator for the people to assess whether the government has made a difference. When the budget changes, it shows not only the policy focus of the government but also the shifts of emphasis on certain policies [21]. In Taiwan, the vast majority of funding for sports comes from the government budget. After the 1990s, the government’s sports budget had a higher proportion of sport-for-all, competitive sports, and the improvement of sports environment [16]. In 1997, the SAC was formed, and the Department of Sports Facilities (DSF) was in charge of hardware equipment. Before 2004, the funds of the DSF were mainly used to improve the projects that were biased towards a sport-for-all movement, such as the national sports environment, bikeways in the city or the county or plans for a national bikeway system [20]. After the SAC began to implement the “Planning and establishment of bikeway systems in Taiwan”, the budget of bikeway construction plan accounted for 59% of the DSF’s in 2003. As Liu [14] has reported, from 1999 to 2003, the goal of sports went beyond physical education and expanded into a part of the overall construction of the nation; the Taiwanese government invested a lot of money to improve the sports environment.

After the government implemented the policy of sport-for-all, the budget for the construction of bikeways increased significantly. For example, when Ying-Jeou Ma ran for president in 2007, one of his political views was to make Taiwan a sports island. After he assumed office, the MOTC first proposed a plan “Eastern Bikeway Network Demonstration Project—cooperating with energy saving and carbon reduction”, which had a budget of about TWD 791 million. The budget was significantly higher than the budget of “Planning and establishment of bikeway systems in Taiwan”. To link up with the cross-regional bikeways, it was necessary to integrate the existing road and mass transportation system. Therefore, the total budget included the relevant construction budgets of the Tourism Bureau, the Taiwan Railways Administration, the Directorate General of Highways and the Institute of Transportation. The implementation experience of the plan also influenced the plans proposed later by the government.

In 2010, Ying-Jeou Ma pushed the manifesto into the past and began to implement the “Sports Island Plan”. Until 2015, the budget was the highest among all related policies of sport-for-all over the years [20]. The approved budget for this plan also changed the budget allocation of the DSF [21]. At that time, the national development policy clearly indicated that bikeways should be promoted in various national scenic spots to help develop tourism and achieve the effect of improving international status. Therefore, the MOTC and the Sports Administration continued to implement the construction plan of bikeways. In 2012, the budget of “Construction plan of the overall road network of bikeways” was TWD 1.2 billion for 4 years. In 2014, the budget of “Overall planning of the national environmentally friendly network of bikeways and bicycle network construction plan of MOTC” was TWD 1 billion 28 million for 4 years. With the support of two policies which are the Sports Island Plan and the Golden Decade, National Vision, the budget of bikeways increased significantly compared with the past showing the government’s ambition to construct bikeways.

After that, President Tsai announced “it is necessary to train elites from the root and drive the country’s competitiveness”. The Sports Administration proposed a project, and the budget was TWD 1.7 billion plus TWD 13 million for friendly bikeways of the Massive Infrastructure Project. The MOTC also proposed a project “Upgrade Cycling Route and multi-route integration promotion plan” in 2019; the budget was raised from TWD 1.6 billion over four years to TWD 2.8 billion in 2021. The adjustment of funds may be in line with the campaign “Year of Cycling Tourism”, supported and promoted by Premier Tseng-Chang Su, and the drawing of guidance lines for bikeways in the “The Regulations for Road Traffic Signs, Markings, and Signals” revised in 2021.

In conclusion, the construction of bikeways accounted for 59% of the DSF’s budget in 2003, and the budget for the plan in 2009 was significantly higher than the plan’s in 2002. Then, due to the development of the policy “Golden Decade, National Vision” from 2010 to 2015, the total budgeted amount for each bikeway policy was the highest. The budget for bikeways in Massive Infrastructure Project was TWD 1.7 billion 13 million in 2017. It was raised to TWD 2.8 billion of “Upgrade Cycling Route and multi-route integration promotion plan” in 2021. There is a growing trend in budget allocations for constructing bikeways. Regarding the indicator of budget, some of the evidence indicates changes in bikeway policies so far.

4.4. The Extent of the Bikeway’s Policy Change

With the above results and to check the position of the three indicators on the spectrum of policy change, a Project Supervision Group which is a task-oriented organization was first established in 2009 to help with the administration of bikeways. It is also a bridge between the central and the local government to facilitate the implementation of policies. These results mark organization on the innovation in the end of the spectrum. In 2014 and 2019, the Project Supervision Group for bikeways was still operational with policies by the MOTC. Although there were some organizational adjustments, the framework was still based on the experience of the Eastern Bikeway Network Demonstration Project. At this time, the extent of change in the “organization” is also located on the succession side of the spectrum.

To implement the bikeway policy, most departments of the Taiwanese government have implemented amendments to the regulations, and the content of amendments covers construction, policy promotion, traffic safety and other aspects. We have noticed several important changes in the “legal framework” of policy change. First, there were two amendments such as “the Standards of Urban Roads and Accessory Works” in 2005 and “The Regulations for Road Traffic Signs, Markings, and Signals” in 2006 for the construction of bikeways and drawing guidance lines for bikeways. At this time, the extent of change in the “legal framework” was located on the innovation side of the spectrum. Second, there were three amendments such as “Act Governing the Punishment of Violation of Road Traffic Regulations”, the “Highway Law” in 2007 and the “Rural Rejuvenation Act” in 2010 for the bikeway safety. The extent of change in the “legal framework” was located on the succession side of the spectrum. However, the three changed statutes belong to the level of Act. Compared with the previous revision of regulations, it symbolized the improvement of the legal level. Third, according to the results of the “104 Bicycle Round-Island Serial Route Signs and Marking Pilot Program”, there were nine amendments of “The Regulations for Road Traffic Signs, Markings, and Signals” in 2014 to improve the safety of riding on bikeways. At this time, the extent of change in the “legal framework” was located on the succession side of the spectrum.

Then, we noticed some important changes of the budget indicator. First, the SAC was budgeted a large amount of money for “Planning and establishment of bikeway systems in Taiwan” in 2002. As the beginning of the development of bikeways, local governments began to propose bikeway construction plans after that; so the extent of change in the “budget” was located on the innovation side of the spectrum. In 2009, the cross-departmental collaboration of “Eastern Bikeway Network Demonstration Project—cooperating with energy saving and carbon reduction” tried to combine bikeways with highways and mass transportation systems to promote the bikeway policy; this was undoubtedly an important point. The “Construction plan of the overall road network of bikeways” in 2012 started to link up with the national bikeway network and construct Cycling Route No. 1. The government proposed a revised version of that plan and optimized bikeways continuously in 2021. The above plans are all located on the succession side of the spectrum.

This study focuses on the process of developing bikeway policies in Taiwan from 2002 to 2021. In terms of three indicators, Taiwan’s bicycle lane policy is continuous and refined. It fits the statement that Hogwood and Peters [22] (p. 226) reported “most policy making is actually policy succession: the replacement of an existing policy, program, or organization by another”.

4.4.1. The First Period, 2002–2007

From 2002 to 2007, a plan to construct a national bikeway around Taiwan was first proposed. To cooperate with this plan, a Screening Committee was formed to review the proposals of local governments. The extent of change in “organization” was located on the innovation side of the spectrum. This plan’s budget was TWD 2.1 billion for five years, and it was unprecedented. Among the indicators of policy changes, the location of “Budget” was the most inclined to policy innovation. The amendments of the “Regulations for Road Traffic Signs, Markings, and Signals”, “Act Governing the Punishment of Violation of Road Traffic Regulations”, and “Highway Law” made the legal framework’s level change from Regulations to Act. Its extent of policy change was more inclined to policy innovation than organizations. Organizing these indicators to observe the overall policies from 2002 to 2007, the type of policy change orientation of spectrum was considered as policy innovation and the extent of impact was Budget > Legal framework > Organization in order.

4.4.2. The Second Period, 2008–2016

From 2008 to 2016, polices focused on concatenation of bikeways across the country. A dedicated organization for bikeways was formed by the MOTC to coordinate with the national plan for the first time and the budget increases continuously because those policies were cross-departmental programs, and many departments were involved. So, the extent of change in “organization” and “budget” were located on the innovation side of the spectrum. The MOTC continued to revise the “Regulations for Road Traffic Signs, Markings, and Signals” and improve the friendliness of route guidance. The extent of change in the “legal framework” was located on the succession side of the spectrum. Organizing these indicators to observe the overall policies from 2008 to 2016, the type of policy change orientation of spectrum was between policy innovation and policy succession, and the extent of impact was Organization > Budget because of the first dedicated organization. The Legal framework’s orientation of spectrum was more likely close to policy succession.

4.4.3. The Third Period, 2017–2021

From 2017 to 2021, the government integrated the existing leisure sports parks and local attractions and constructed a circular route of bikeways. In this period, a Project Supervision Group for bikeways was again established by the MOTC. The government continued to revise the regulations for constructing bikeways and allocate a large amount of the budget for the construction and optimization of bikeways just like the budget had been raised from TWD 1.6 billion in 2019 to TWD 2.8 billion in 2021, a significant indicator. The extent of change of these indicators were all located on the succession side of the spectrum. However, the budget’s orientation of spectrum was closer to policy innovation than others. Organizing these indicators to observe the overall policies from 2017 to 2021, the type of policy change orientation of spectrum is considered policy succession, and the extent of change is Legal framework > Organization > Budget.

To sum up, by discussing the continuous differentiation and integration of the three indicators of this theory in this study, we noticed that regardless of the research topic or field, in the process of policy change, these indicators are quite specific and need to be discussed together because they are related. In the future, we recommend that the following studies can also be incorporated with interview methods so that researchers can better understand how theoretical and practical decision-making interact.

5. Conclusions

Reviewing each plan in different periods, they may have several goals or purposes for bikeways. The origin of the bikeway was mainly for leisure activities. Then, to combine with other modes of transportation, local governments proposed some plans for leisure and commuting a short distance, and some projects were focused on sightseeing. When several local governments completed the bicycle network, the Taiwanese government started to link these bikeways together to become a regional network; different administrative departments started to plan and construct bikeways (See

Table 2. The length of bikeways built by various administrative units in each period until December 2020.

Year	Sports Administration	Construction and Planning Agency (CPA)	Environmental Protection Administration (EPA)	Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC)	Total
2002–2007	709 km	11.22 km	-	-	720.22 km
2008–2016	2815 km	295.78 km	290 km	1668 km	5168.78 km
2017–2020	1320 km	92 km	-	614 km	2026 km

).

However, we can notice that most bikeways were built for leisure and sightseeing for citizens. This influenced the trend of future construction projects. Therefore, after these bikeway networks were improved and upgraded, we learned that the Taiwan government is now proposing to improve the commuting route of bicycles in the future.

Applying Hogwood and Peters’ notion of policy dynamics, this paper illustrates how the Taiwanese government conducted certain polices of bikeways to realize their ambition of ‘a cycling surround island of Taiwan’. This study found that local bikeways were built by the government because of the needs for urban or township development, such as “Guanshan Town Circle Bicycle Path” in Taitung and the bikeways for leisure and commuting purposes after the MRT system was launched in Taipei. Bicycles have become a means of transportation for connection and transfer. They have driven the trend of opening up bikeways in Taiwan and have become the beginning of the construction of a national bikeway policy. Since the SAC proposed the “Planning and establishment of bikeway systems in Taiwan” in 2002, local governments constructed bikeways according to different terrain conditions and user requirements, Later, the relevant management departments of the central and local governments carried out cross-departmental cooperation, such as through the MOTC, the SAC, Ministry of the Interior (MOI), and the Environmental Protection Administration, to jointly develop the plan and the construction regulations.

After the Ministry of Communications put forward the “Eastern Bikeway Network Demonstration Project—cooperating with energy saving and carbon reduction” in 2009, the SAC, the Tourism Bureau, the Taiwan Railway Administration, the Directorate General of Highways, and the Institute of Transportation Developed related supporting software and hardware measures. It also finally established the first dedicated organization “Eastern Bikeway Network Demonstration Project Supervision Group” for the development of bikeway policies and integrated multiple departments, railway and highway systems. It also implemented route connections, and improved surrounding facilities. Moreover, it is a platform for the government to achieve cross-departmental communication and division of labor, bridging the gap between various departments and local governments and promoting different departments to develop supporting measures according to their responsibilities and jurisdiction. These symbolize the promotion and maturity of Taiwan’s bikeway policy development.

This organization continually inspected and adjusted bikeways, amended regulations related to bike lane markings, and further promoted the amendment of many regulations. In accordance with the revised criteria, it compiled the “A reference manual on planning and design for bikeway systems and facilities”, making the relevant policies of bikeways more efficient and complete. This coincided with the conclusion mentioned by Chang and Lee [26] that “After the MOI implemented the Local System Law, the authority of local governments has increased, and the establishment of good intergovernmental relations between organizations is an important key to the promotion and implementation of school sports policies”.

Last but not the least, reorganization of sports organizations or additions and changes to regulations may also be a method used by governments or politicians to assist in the development of national policies. In fact, there is no lack of support from high-level decision makers in the process of developing bikeways. Since the early days of developing bikeways in 2002, the ruling political party has changed three times. The national policies proposed by different presidents indirectly affected the development trend of bikeways. For example, during the administration of President Ma, substantial bikeway construction was taking place. By linking the national bikeway network with tourism, the international visibility of Taiwan was enhanced. During the administration of President Tsai, the bikeways were nearly complete, so the promotion of policies turned back to deepening the local and regional bikeway networks. From this, it can be seen that at different times leaders develop national policies that they think are valuable to meet current situations, which affects the construction trend of bikeways.

In summary, it is helpful to observe the policy change process of bikeway construction in Taiwan in light of the three indicators proposed by Hogwood and Peters [3]. Due to the establishment of a dedicated organization, budgets continue to increase, and the continuous addition and revision of relevant regulations for bikeways, have formed considerable and become key indicators of the successful promotion of bikeway policies in Taiwan.