That’s a good point. I forgot about that. Americans drive longer distances that most countries.
Like it is done in Taiwan. I think I read in TT, if they die in the hospital anytime after 24 hours it is not counted as a traffic death.
People commuting to work are usually doing it via highway. Higher speeds = better chance of death. As someone already stated, statistics can be skewed to anyone’s particular argument. But the comparison is pretty stark given the population differences. No matter how you may want to spin it.
Who’s spinning?
Probably some unlucky fool you just got crunched while walking in the crosswalk whilst some d’bag turned right into a pedestrian crossing without even a hint of yielding, or better yet coming to a stop.
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In most of the US. I can drive 100mph and lose control and run off the road and not hurt anyone or myself if I get lucky. Can you say that in taiwan? I’ve seen so many crashes in the US vs taiwan. However, most crashes in the US don’t involve pedestrians, scooters, and other vehicles. People just hit a tree, poll or in a ditch in the US. Traffic accidents are just logically going to messier here with so many things involved.
Drivers in the US are generally more careful. But I would be willing to bet most drivers in the US couldn’t even park their cars here. I’ve seen aggressive drivers here, but I guess I’m used to it and it doesn’t bother me. But in the US I’ve been in the car of truely terrible drivers that would crash or bump into something weekly if they even tried to drive here.
For me driving in the US and taiwan. Naturally in most of the US, a driving mistake or recklessness is just more forgiving. In my experience there’s just as many reckless drivers in the US on the road but it’s just more spread out and the roads are usually wider and more forgiving. I mean driving down one block in taipei I probably encounter more vehicles and pedestrians than I do driving for a couple miles in the US. You mess up here and you’re going to do some damage.
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No, things will be messier here because there are zero enforcement laws. Poor driver training and a culturally complete lack of thought that anything will happen to them or the lack of thought of others around them. Hence, in 2017 you still see Mom on scooter, three year holding on for dear life on the back sans helmet. Five year-old standing in the front seat sans helmet. I thought that shit was funny in Cambodia 20 years ago.
Every time I take the garbage out at 830, there will always be two or three scooters or cars that drive by, no headlights as people are tossing their garbage in he truck.
Is it only because it is crowded it is messier? Crowded in Tokyo. Crowded in Singapore and Seoul, too.
Sorry, you can’t equate America to this. Look at the surrounding countries.
I just went to Tokyo this past summer and outside local police stations they have a list of the people that died in traffic accidents the previous day.
It usually said 1 or 0.
Taiwan averages 8 a day.
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You’d be the only one.
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Like I said. Crashes here just involve people. Living in the suburbs in Texas in high school. Seems like every day someone has a small fender bender at school or scrashed their car on something. Worst is they hit a tree. Drive like that in taiwan. Most kids in my high school would have died.
Taiwan does need more driving training yes. Because it is much more difficult to drive here. I don’t think I’ve ever had a time where I’m just driving on a open straight and wide road with no other vehicles and the left and right side is just grass or nothing that’s too bad if I go into it.
I don’t know about Tokyo. But in Korea there’s not as much scooters which I assume is why the death toll is so high here. I know Tokyo doesn’t have as much scooters either. I’ve only been once. I go to Korea often and my moms side is Korean. They drive just as reckless and aggressive as any other developed country I’ve been to and drinking and driving is also an issue there. The only scooters I see is mostly delivery people in Korea.
Stupid question… but kinda related. Do we know if there has been a serious increment in the number of cars in Taipei? The last 2-3 years there are more and more cars in the expressway that I take for going to the office, to the point that currently there are traffic jams every time I take it (before it was sometimes). While this could be explained by a number of factors, I always have the feeling that there is no room for one more car in Taipei. I guess that this also affects the number of total accidents we see…
BTW, I was close to write a post about three incidents/close calls from last Sunday. Really stupid, selfish, reckless driving in Taipei, really… I’m close to give up motorcycling…
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I think it has much more to do with ignoring traffic signals, traffic laws and being devoid of common sense.
I believe we are looking at the same glass through a different prism. In high school in suburban Texas you and your friends fuck around and drive into someone’s yard or something.
When I am done throwing my trash in the garbage truck and attempt to walk across the street at 830pm, my first thought is to look closer because I know one or two dumbshits are going to be rolling through, even while knowing people are actively in the process of tossing out garbage and crossing a street that they cannot even think of turning on a headlight?
I think this is more responsible for traffic deaths and accidents in Taiwan than anything else. Who cares about how well Taiwanese can park, especially when most double park anyway and then force others to go into opposing lanes, with Moms and kids sans helmets, sans headlights scootering on by…
Your anecdotes don’t work here. And the statistics say so as well.
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I understand what you’re saying. I see it too and shake my head. By I guess different countries have their own bad driving and road habits. Let’s take the US out. I was losing my mind driving in Italy this summer. In fact I actually stopped in the middle of the road and got out of my car to confront the other driver with like the 10 phrases of Italian I know. I’ve never done that.
And it sounds like most of the complaints are from scooter riders. That’s why I don’t ride scooters around and never will.
And how does my anecdotes not make sense to what I’m saying. No my friends didn’t drive around in people’s yards lol. Thats not what Texas is like for the most part unless you go in the middle of no where. Let’s go to VA, in my college days living in a college town. I would say on any given Friday there would be hundreds of drunk drivers driving back. There’s only been a couple of drunk driving deaths in my 4 years there. Most just hit something when they park or drive off to the side. You take those drivers and put them here and it’s scary. It’s just a empirical fact that there’s more damage to be done here when you mess up.
I’m just saying, ignoring traffic laws is not something that’s just here. You just see the obvious ones that stand out. I don’t notice it as much. I saw just as much bad driving and road habits when I go to other places that I’m shocked by and no one seems to notice.
I mean can you really say the amount of people that text and drive in the US is more or less dangerous than a scooter rider without a helmet? I don’t really blink an eye on texting and driving when I’m in the states with my friends. Unless the person is really overdoing it and is already a poor driver. And I’m even guilty of it at times. But I’m guessing you take a local Taiwanese person and they see that, they would be shocked on how prevalent it is.
The Taiwanese do have amazing driving skills in navigation, as others already said even better than American and Canadian drivers. They just don’t care about right of way which Westerners care so much about. Once Westerners understand and internalize this fact and the fact that it will never change , their driving will become safer and they will be less bothered by the organized chaos here.
I’ve been driving in Taiwan so long now that I much prefer it’s organized chaos to Western driver inattentiveness because at least I know what to expect with Taiwanese drivers.
I’m back home for a few months and I’ve been more scared to drive motorcycles here than Taiwan, drivers think they are the only vehicle on the road and everyone is very inattentive.
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nothing wrong with organised chao, its just the brain dead lack of respect for others safety that gets me.
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Thanks for the clarification.
The traffic in TW is like the firearms situation in America. It is highly dangerous to those who do not know what they are doing. It works for those it works for and doesn’t for those it doesn’t. Police are helpless in trying to enforce traffic laws and fines. There is a lot of anger when accidents happen, yet no one seems really interested in trying to solve the problem, if it can indeed be solved at all to everyone’s satisfaction.
They do not care about the right of way, they do not care about stop signs, they do not care about drinking and driving laws, they do not care about anyone’s safety -even their own. There is no concept, or appears to be no concept of stopping after an accident. They even blow through crosswalks with kids on them. I have given up counting how many times I have almost been hit by a bus or car failing to stop, or at least slow down, when entering an intersection.
Driving is safer here than the US? I would disagree.
The US had 27,875 traffic related deaths in 2016. Against its population (320m) that is .000087% Taiwan, with figures in this article, is at .00013% I do not know if the TW numbers include pedestrians, or other disinterested parties but, the US numbers do.
I think we’re all argueling for different things. I feel driving is safer here because i understand and expect the way people drive and people who drive here can actually drive and navigate their cars. In the US, the amount of poor drivers that just can’t operate a vehicle and people who just are clueless of other cars in scarier. You’re almost forced to drive in the US, so you have people like that one girl I had in school who had 5 car accidents that’s 100% her fault because she freaks out and confuses the gas and break pedal and ran into a stop car before the age of 18. So I trust drivers here way more.
I can prepare for people who don’t give the right away for pedestrians. I cant account for a clueless driver texting and changing their music while driving. And drinking and driving is way more prevelant in the US compared to at least taipei. The alcohol limit is so low here, I think you can have 1-2 beers and still drive in the US with a blood alcohol level that’s ok. So you get people who think they’re ok and do that all the time. In my time in both countries. I can say I’ve known way more people who openly confess and even brag they’re better drivers when they drank. I’ve never heard of that here. You just hear about it more here on the news since taipei is a small place and there’s not much news. So that rich kid driving a Lamborghini crashing drunk is big news for like a month and whatever government official trying to get office use it as a political platform to gain or stay in power saying they’re going to crack down on it.
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I can appreciate the high level of attention required to be on the roads here. But to say they can navigate their cars, well, I can navigate a motorcycle. But there appears to be absolute disregard for other drivers. It is not defensive driving, it is offensive driving in that “You look out for me, I will not looking out for you” mentality. Once that sets in and you get used to it, sure. No more problems since everyone is doing it. Cars, scooters, motorcycles, buses all going whatever way in whatever lane on a street is some how considered organized? Betel nut chomping bus and cab drivers somehow make it safer here?
As my brother in law put it to me after he received 3 tickets driving in the states during a holiday, “traffic laws are a western problem.”