I’m not going to open up the survey again to confirm my memory, but I was second-guessing the questions about the English sign. There was the sign with garbage English - and then there was a question asking if I thought it’d be a good idea to have more signs with English, like the above. And I wasn’t sure how to answer! “Yes, I suppose more English signs would be useful, but it’s WAY down the list of priorities”? Or “No, having more bad signs like that one that just cause further confusion would make things even worse.”
As in, do they know the bad sign is obviously bad, and they’re assuming we know too? I don’t think so - but maybe?
Anyway, I really hope they pay much more attention to the free text field than to most of the other questions, which were to a large extent beside the point.
Nobody said anything about primtives, ridiculous thing to say.
Incompetent, corrupt, selfish and deeply unwilling to improve Taiwans traffic though yes, it wouldn’t be fair to say otherwise based on what they have shown us over the last few years.
It depends what their point is. It reads like there’s been an uptick in accidents involving migrant workers on electric bikes. I don’t think the survey is aimed at us.
Anyway, I told them that the existing traffic rules need to be enforced and the driving test is inadequate.
which is a news report on how the poor English on the sign was laughed at by school kids. Was it done on purpose, did someone simply Google for a traffic sign image and use the first one that came up without bothering to read the article, was the quiz written by a foreigner who decided to throw in a little easter egg?!
People are telling me that they did it on purpose but according to my experience living in this country is that taiwanese don’t get sarcasm let alone in English so I don’t think it was done on purpose
This is what I wrote there: 15. The number of traffic accidents involving foreigners in Taiwan is increasing. What do you think are the main reasons, and how should the Taiwanese government improve this issue?
The main reason for foreigners traffic accidents leading to injury or death is not the foreigner’s themselves but rather due to the poor driving skills of most Taiwanese. Not only are they not well versed with the traffic rules and regulations but they are ill equipped to handle a situation when an emergency arises (like losing control of your vehicle during rainy days) as they haven’t had basic training. The license test here is a joke too…in which real life scenario would one use the S move to move forward or backwards? Also, it seems most of the population here lack peripheral vision, they only look straight ahead and are not aware of their immediate surroundings, which is one of the main reasons why so many vehicles turning in an intersection collide with pedestrians and they blame it on the A柱. The Govt. should be more active in teaching basic driving skills to Taiwanese.
To the last question I made note of passports not important, Taiwan society is not taught and doesn’t practice enough critical thinking and we need to teach kids this as well as being less selfish and more aware of our surroundings. Traffic accide ts are the cause, they are a symptom of a deeper cultural/societal problem that if fixed will improve every aspect of life and industry here.
I’m not sure that that is the intent, I do believe they’re trying to account for why so many viet and Indo drivers are getting into accidents. The answer is obvious – they probably drive even more shit than the Taiwanese back home, so when they come here and there’s no drivers Ed + a significantly more cavalier attitude to road safety than even the Taiwanese have, naja. Gonna be problems.
But they aren’t saying foreigners of any sort are causing the accidents, just saying there are more incidents involving them, so they’re trying to figure out if there’s a workable issue or if it’s just “yeah, our traffic and traffic infrastructure is just bad”
Bear in mind, this seems to center somewhat around the Viet’s and Indos, most of whom ride around on those lower power electric scooters. So this might be part of why. You’ll see huge groups of them going out together all on their escoots.
Can people applying for a license still just go pay a a driving training company to do their training and receive a license “pass” document from the driving training company?
I have told the wife many times if the government would centralize English editing review they could easily solve bad/incorrect English problems on all new signs. Just hire two foreigners…then any new sign with English anywhere in Taiwan just send to the foreigners to check. In most cases, not difficult at all. Problem is simply lack of coordination. I even volunteered to do this for the area where I live. I know the administration head (was my landlord). However, I am sure she could not do this as simply no system in place and who would take ultimate responsibility? This could not be just for traffic signs only. I made the suggestion for my helping to review when I saw the large “Form Food” sign on the agriculture office (should be “Farm Food”) building.
As for the various translations of Chinese place name to English. Well, this will never be solved as too many politicians refuse to use Wade-Giles system.
Yes, ppl can get their car licenses by paying and going to these driving schools. It’s usually a 3 to 4 week course costing around 15~20K if I’m not mistaken. I went to one myself around 18 years ago in 2007. Much cheaper back then costing me around 8K. On Day 1, the instructor will just give you a basic run through on how to pass the course (how to drive in a straight line without touching the lines on the side, parallel parking, garage parking, driving up and down a hill etc). There are white tapes stuck all inside and outside the hood of the car to help you “line” up the car to do the perfect maneuvre so you can pass the test on your first try. From Day 2 onwards, the instructor will let you drive the car yourself while he sits nearby and chat and drink tea. The school will also arrange to take you to the DMV to take the written test and health check.
On test day, the road test will be given inside the Driving School’s track itself where you’ve been practicing since Day 1 with officials from the DMV present. Some schools don’t have this option but IMO, most schools let you give the test inside their own grounds (原場考照). You just have to do the same routine which you’ve been practicing (looking at the white tapes and aligning the car) and you pass the test very easily. Come back a few days later to pick up your license.
The real problem is the driver’s license reciprocity.
Indonesians and Vietnamese can easily transfer their licenses to Taiwan.
In the last 5 years they allowed migrant workers to own scooters… since then, what happened? Oh wait accidents involving them mostly doubled. Go figure.
The issue is the increase in Vietnamese and Indonesian drivers having incidents in the last 5 years. Not all foreigners. They even stated this clearly.
The cause of the issue is obvious. License conversions from those countries are too easy.
And this is a bug reason why the survey is useless. When they see a lot of this, it incentivizes them to blame to foreigners more, rather than import driving instructors which is what they need
Or they could use AI now. The root problem is the same as the traffic problem or bad survey design, not enough people actually care enough to do it right.
