So I should just assume that because things haven’t changed yet, it’s apparently every Taiwanese person’s fault for not speaking up, talking to their MP and starting a petition?
If it were that easy, many countries in the world would be better places already now. Maybe Australia is and they don’t have any problems because the politicians listen to all the issues of the population and come up with solutions. I don’t know - never been there, but it sounds like a utopy to me if it’s really like that.
But I am just a simple pauper living far away from my country of citizenship in a foreign country without any special connections to any MP or politicians and has to get up every morning to earn their livelihood. So I mostly have to deal with the cards life has dealt to me instead of waking up every day to make the world a better place because that’s life. Woe is me!
Things only started changing recently as people started petitioning and writing more to local MPs etc
Many countries are shit holes not because of their location, resources etc… but because the citizens there.
For example… Filipinos vote for Marcos. Marcos takes the country’s money and flees. Now the people voted in his son? Why? I don’t know. But we can’t say the corruption and poverty is not their fault. (Especially after voting in his son)
Why are the vast majority of African countries poor? Meanwhile Asian countries with few resources got rich quickly?
Why does Germany have this policy on license renunciation? Because the people you voted in power believe this is a good idea.
Exactly. One way to deal with it would be to do the test in Taiwan. (Thus bypassing the need to renounce your German license.)
I moved here before turning 25 and QLD has the policy that Taiwanese under 25 have to do the test… so the same for me (reciprocity). I decided to do the test using an automatic car and then changed my license to a manual license once I turned 25. (at the time Germans had to take the test as there was no agreement at all until late 2019) - I must say though… a lot of Germans that seemed to have trouble reversing through an S curve and therefore failed a simple test astounded me! (Which is probably why many Germans would opt to renounce their licenses in the hope the can resume upon return to their homeland)
Not a German but I would definitely swap Taiwanese driving habits for the German ones.
I find it hilarious that S curve skills are put forward as some kind of example of superior driving skills vs actual safe driving principles practiced in Germany.
Just look at the autobahn’s Rechtsfahrgebot vs chaos on Taiwanese highways (and US) and I have driven in both countries.
I’m not saying one is better than the other. What I’m saying is that I don’t see how a simple reverse could be so dreaded by the Germans who had to do the test here. The test in Taiwan is honestly so simple that I suspect my daughter could pass.
My only guess would be they can only drive straight at speed on a highway… and not so good at turning or reversing.
Big difference in design etc. German highways are built much wider and straighter with much more camber. Not to mention… a lot more cars on the road and bigger trucks in the U.S. compare LA traffic to Berlin! Moves much faster in LA with more traffic (when it gets going) you will see cars at some points going bumper to bumper at nearly 70 miles an hour
Is I said before: I regret not just taking the test and thus getting both licenses. At the time, the license exchange agreement was just announced and I just thought “Oh, that’s neat, no need to do either test”. Then I found out just before doing the exchange that I actually need to surrender my license and in the moment didn’t anticipate the issues this could bring in the future. Also, I was under the impression that I can always just change back the license easily when I want to.
As they say: Hindsight is better than foresight…
Part of me posting here is also to warn others in my situation not to do the exchange and simply take the test. I simply cannot recommend it! As you and others have said, it would have probably been very easy (even though my Germaness and the genetic predisposition for sucking at reverse S-curves that comes with that apparently).
In my situation, I decided to do the exchange. I’ve been in Taiwan 20 years and decided recently that I’m going to close everything down in the US. I won’t renew my driver’s license there (or get a replacement for the one that now has a hole punched in it). The driver’s license is what I think made me get called in for jury duty so I say good riddance to my US license in some ways. It took me 200nt and about 5 minutes to apply for an international driver’s license. I will also be transferring my money from the US to Taiwan in the coming months.
I have no idea if it is dreaded but I know from my daughter (heh) how they were taught in driving school here:
instructor told them to look out of the car at specific angle and which landmarks to note on the turn and then steer precisely that many turns with steering wheel at that point and voilà, test passed.
So in other words: no actual skills to reverse on the S-curves but just teaching to the test.
Canadian MPs are generally as useless as tits on a bull
They have had angry Canadians write in for years about the recent immigration overdrive and they literally don’t care. They would care even less about an issue on a small island from a person who is likely no longer a taxpayer.
The times I’ve written in, I waited a few weeks before getting a canned answer from some intern
What they are useful for though is if you are stuck in a bureaucracy maze, sometimes they can help get you expedited but they don’t actually intervene
Got some time to fact check it and the lane width is pretty much the same for German autobahn and CA and US highways and freeways.
Autobahn: 3.5m urban, 3.75m rural (except left lane) 11.4 12.3feet
US Interstate requirements min 12feet (3.56m)
CA highways min 11feet preferred 12feet.
German laws and safety standards are much better than US (not even mentioning Taiwan)
Yeah, I do find myself driving like that in Taiwan too and try to avoid it. It is a great way to die in a pile up. Normalization of deviance does not mean it is a safe practice.
For conventional State highways with posted speeds less than or equal to 40 miles per hour and AADTT (truck volume) less than 250 per lane that are in urban, city or town centers (rural main streets), the minimum lane width shall be 11 feet. The preferred lane width is 12 feet. See Index 81.3 for place type definitions.
Interstates:
1.2.2 Lane Width
The design standards for the Interstate System state that all traffic lanes shall be at least 12 feet wide. In addition to the
primary through travel lanes, the criteria also apply to lane widths for auxiliary lanes such as climbing lanes. There are also
widths for special-purpose lanes such as on interchange ramps.
To provide for unimpeded, high-speed traffic flow is the general rule for the Autobahn design. Most Autobahns feature the following design elements (Unimproved older segments excluded)
Two, three, or occasionally four lanes per direction. Rural section lanes are generally 3.75 meters wide except the left lane of newer three lane segments, which is 3.5 meters wide. On urban sections, all lanes are 3.5 meters wide.
Why are we comparing US width? Taiwan is not the US. I only mentioned the US because you mentioned it earlier in the conversation. I thought we were comparing Taiwan to Germany.
And your answer was that German’s lack of highway chaos is because they have wider highways and look at that LA 70mph bumper to bumper traffic.
Anyway, we have some useful facts out of this exchange:
Taiwan’s 3.25 - 3.5m lane width is 25cm smaller than German 3.5 - 3.75m width.
This is still not a justification for lane usage chaos.
It (and camber) could be a justification for lower speed limit.
Interesting find is that Germans drive +200kph on left lane which is 3.5m wide
Rural section lanes are generally 3.75 meters wide except the left lane of newer three lane segments, which is 3.5 meters wide.
One thing about Germany is that historically they are good at enforcing rules and people following the rules. It extends to a lot more things than driving though…
One example of many would be the tax office. There are quite a few stories online where paperwork got stuck in an infinite loop for years. A call to the MP got the issue prioritized as they have the number to the minister of that department. Same with any department that you are stuck in a loop with.
The MP office tells you straight up that they don’t intervene but they get the wheels moving
