I will be driving around the whole island, have followed google maps throughout the whole route, and I have just 4 questions about the road signage. 1.- if you are at a 4 (or 5) way intersection, with no stop sign, or with a stop sign, and sometimes the white parallel lines for pedestrian crossing, who goes first?, 2.- what does the yellow cross hatching boxed area mean? 3- can you make a left turn across a double yellow line if you need to get to the cpc fuel station or parking? 4.-and lastly, can you turn left across a single white line if need to ? thanks in advance, i know i could problable search for these, but I have not found the simple answers. (my wife is Chinese and can read all the signs)
I’ll give you the official answers, which of course may or may not be followed by the general public.
If one road is wider than the other, then the vehicle coming from the narrow road (or whichever road has a stop sign, if any) yields.
In an intersection where both roads are of equal width and importance, and both vehicles are going straight (or both turning), then the vehicle to the right goes first (like in Europe). However, if one vehicle is going straight and the other is turning, then the turning vehicle yields even if it’s on the right. Many drivers don’t follow this though.
If there is a stop sign, then whoever has the stop sign needs to stop and yield until ALL traffic is clear (many drivers don’t stop). If all four sides have a stop sign, then you need to follow the right-of-way rules described in the previous paragraph, after coming to a complete stop.
The added presence of a pedestrian crossing does not affect the above rules. All vehicles must yield to pedestrians first before following the above rules, even if there is no crossing.
Same meaning as in most other countries: Keep the area clear of stopped vehicles, to prevent blockage. If there is a vehicle stopped on the other side of the area, then you need to stop before the area.
No.
A single solid white line is a lane separator where a lane-change is not allowed. Why would you turn left across a lane separator? Get into the left lane first.
Legally, the pedestrians then the person without a stop sign, here there is also the legal left of way. In practice, the average person will just proceed slowly and everyone will slip past each other. The safest thing is to assume nobody knows or cares who has right of way and proceed accordingly.
You can’t stop there. If the next light is red and the road on the far side of the box has nonspace for you, wait where you are. Many people ignore or don’t know this rule, so you’ll often see people sitting in those and blocking the connecting streets, alleys, or parking lots.
Legally, no. In practice, people do it all the time because whoever paints the road lines doesn’t understand how. Often it is safe if not legal to turn, sometimes not safe. Similarly, just because there is a single dashed line do not believe that it is safe to legally overtake (so many are too short or on curvy roads with no visibility. Anyways, because people ride very fast or sometimes come around blind corners at speed, better to find gas and parking on your side of the street, or proceed forward slowly until there is a safe and legal opportunity to cross and go back.
This one I’m not sure, but I work on the assumption it is ok. One if the reasons most people here ignore all the lines on the roads is that so often they don’t make any sense
Part of the reason the traffic here is so awful is nobody knows all the rules because it isn’t very clear in all situations because the infrastructure is very random. Police don’t tend to enforce (well, much traffic laws really) the things you are questioning, so my advice overall is assume someone will pop in front of you any time there is available space for them to do so, lines on the roads be damned, and drive accordingly.
This.
Like when you have a slow lane for scooters separated by a solid white line. Intuition says you cannot cross it (since it’s solid) but then how the hell to get on this slow lane or, how to turn right with a car?
Hence, I don’t pay attention to the road markings, only around the intersections with 科技執法 yellow signs.
Regarding the intersections without traffic lights, I know there are rules, but following them will only get you in trouble as nobody follows these in Taiwan, and almost nobody pays attention to STOP or YIELD signs.
The best technique to survive on these intersections is to cross them super slowly, observe the other drivers’ behaviour, and assume that you may have to suddenly yield to everyone at any time.
Hongkongers statements are correct. Practicals are my focus. The real answer is: one person will just blow through it, and the rest will go based on who is the least patient. Sometimes based on a vague sense of who arrived first. At many intersections without lights, you’ll find most people will just not stop on the “bigger road” even though there might be a very negligible difference in road size, at which point traffic flow takes priority.
Pedestrians exist to be ran over and will not consistently be stopped for. We encourage you to try and be better about this AND DONT GET ANGRY at the cars who will honk at you. Make sure to telegraph braking if you have someone behind you… just left off the throttle, rapidly press brakes to increase chance of it being noticed. Sudden stops often can result in rear ends as drivers don’t leave enough space.
You can’t stop there or park there or be stopped there waiting for a red light etc.
Practically, this means you can only stop there sometimes when the police are lazy or not present in order to go and pick up some betel nut.
Technically no, practically yes. See: literally every driver everywhere here and their random U-turns. It’s epidemic level, and they’re generally awful at it.
Try to be a bit sly about it tho, maybe find a nearby dotted line. U-turns are mostly not allowed on bigger roads, but that’s assuming the police actually enforce it. Most importantly, be careful. My rec is find a left turn box on a smaller intersection where you can safely execute the U-turn in two steps: go to box, then left turn on to the other side of previous road. It might still be “illegal” but I’m sorry, if the intersection isn’t that busy I can’t be fucked to wait 2 minutes of my life in a turn box to perform a left turn I can competently perform because I know how to drive.
???
Instructions unclear
But the answer to most questions is: probably illegal, practically whatever if nobody’s watching , and if u get caught it’s pretty cheap.
That said, try to drive according to rules of the road, mostly. You can get away without it, but shits fucked enough here as it stands.
