交通組博士班 費曼妲Amanda Fernandes
交通組碩二 夏明達Máté Sebők
UTransit, Transit for You
[編按：Amanda和Mate是來自巴西和匈牙利的外籍生，目前分別在本系交通組就讀博士班和碩士班。這是Amanda在臺灣的第二年；Mate在進入交通組之前，已經在政治大學讀了四年的國際關係，能說得一口流利的中文。兩個來自不同國家、不同文化背景的外籍同學，她們同樣喜愛臺灣，同樣關心都市的發展、綠色交通、永續運輸；她們創立了UTransit這個臉書專業和網站，透過不同的角度來觀察、紀錄臺灣的都市和運輸發展，更希望透過社群網站的平臺能與相同興趣的朋友一同交流、分享意見，一點一點地，希望能帶來一些改變、希望我們能生活在一個更好的城市]
Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/UTransit-228950420927083/
Website: https://sebokmate20.wixsite.com/mysite
UTransit has started as a transportation blog in May 2017. The goal was to create a platform to share news and exchange ideas about green transportation, sustainable development and active mobility. Amanda Fernandes and Máté Sebők are the two co-writers of UTransit. Amanda came from Brazil and Máté from Hungary, and currently they are both international students at the National Taiwan University’s Civil Engineering Department, where they are studying transportation engineering under the guidance of Professor Jason S.K. Chang (張學孔教授). Amanda has been studying green urban logistics, sustainable development, cycling and mobility management, while Máté is mainly interested in urban public transportation, cycling and active mobility. The blog articles are also related to these topics.
Interviewed by 民視異言堂, talking about cycling and green mobility in Taipei
UTransit was idealized about one year ago, inspired by the discussions between classmates, professors and experts. As international students living and studying in Taiwan, we have often encountered different perspectives and ways of thinking; we have seen and heard ideas that we have never thought of before, and we have also had the chance to share our own experiences with Taiwanese people. In this context, UTransit has been created in order to promote a dialogue between all these actors, especially for those who study and work on the same field. We aim to offer a space where people can get connected from different parts of the world to have the chance to discuss ideas and share both academic and practical points of view. We would like to utilize what we have learned at the university in our discussions while reflecting on everyday issues that are being discussed by the citizens.
International Cycling Conference 2017, Mannheim, Germany,with our advisor, Prof. Jason S.K. Chang
The articles include local examples from Taipei and Taiwan as well as global issues, highlighting good practices, infrastructure developments or even problematizing controversial issues from different cities and countries. By the way, in this October we have made reports from the EcoMobility Festival, Kaohsiung, introducing the newest transportation related solutions, including the self-driving shuttle bus. In addition, we have also been sharing ideas about how cycling infrastructure could be improved in Taipei, especially around the redeveloped areas, such as Beimen.
Introducing the self-driving shuttle bus in Kaohsiung
Redesigning the bike infrastructure at Beimen, in Taipei City
We hope, that through our posts we can generate more discussion on green transportation and bring more attention to the ongoing issues that will definitely influence our life in the future. Hopefully, you can join our discussion on our Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/UTransit-228950420927083/
In the following sections there are more detailed introductions about the two co-authors of UTransit:
Amanda Fernandes
I am a Brazilian PhD student and currently I am developing my research at the Department of Civil Engineering, National Taiwan University. I have been studying and working in the transportation area for the past 10 years. During this time I had the chance to study different transportation-related topics in renowned institutions both in Brazil and abroad. I have a master degree in Transportation Engineering by Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, a specialization in Transportation and Traffic by the Federal Center for Technological Education of Minas Gerais and a specialization degree in Logistics and Supply Chain Management by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. During the past 10 years I had the luck to meet many specialists and learned a lot from them. I also had the chance to get involved in many different research projects about diverse topics in this area. Presently I am working in a project related to the use of cargo-bike as an alternative for freight transport in high dense urban centers. Currently my research interests include Urban Mobility, Sustainable Urban Logistics, Active Mobility and Sustainable Urban Development.
Transportation has been always one of my personal interests. I have started my career as a road technician working with the infrastructure part, mainly with soil mechanics and asphalt analysis. Before moving to Taiwan, I was working as the Laboratories Coordinator of the Department of Transportation Engineering in one of most important Technical Universities of Brazil.
Living in Taiwan have been an amazing experience to me. In my option, Taiwan has a great potential both to teach and to learn from other countries. I think UTransit can be the bridge that makes the exchange happen and I am really happy to be part of it.
Máté Sebők
The current transportation engineering program at the National Taiwan University is my second master degree. The reason why I started this program was to learn about green and sustainable mobility at a professional level for my future career.
Cycling and public transportation have always played an important role in my life. For instance, at the age of 15, I participated in a Budapest-Rome bicycle trip that covered 1500 km within 2 weeks. That trip gave me one of the most amazing experience, as travelling through countries by bicycle let me experience the landscape from a very different perspective. Later I joined in smaller bike trips and other transportation related events in Hungary.
I applied to National Taiwan University in 2016 to focus on human-centric, green and sustainable transportation and active mobility. Since the beginning of the program, I had several great opportunities to develop my knowledge and learn about transportation management, green transportation planning and urban cycling from the academic perspective. For example, since last April, I am actively taking part in a project that aims to develop a new para-transit system in Taiwan that will assist the mobility of the elderly and disabled citizens. My duty in this project is to collect international examples for similar para-transit services as well as to provide assistance for the report writing. I was also involved in the process of service management design and tender writing for public bus services in the past few months. In addition, I participated in some volunteer activities by helping one of the urban cycling association in Taipei, called TUBA in promoting cycling activities. One of TUBA’s project was to provide free coffee every Friday morning in Taipei to those who cycle to work or school. I participated in the project at MRT Daan station, and one of the great experience was to see that actually there were more cyclists in Taipei than I would expected. For me, UTransit is an important platform where I can share my experiences with other people who have similar interest and can get inspired by others’ thoughts or ideas while reading comments and having discussions on the website.
