People driving there learned to drive in lots of different places, not a good mix. At least when it is homogeneous people have a better idea of what other people will do.
I’m going to put on my arm chair philosopher’s hat ~ The main, the key difference is this, in Taiwanese culture, helping or giving to others is the highest virtue occupying the top level of the value pyramid so to speak. Acts or examples of altruism win the most respect. I suspect it has to do with the mahayana Buddhist tradition.
In China, culture is subject to the Party. Whatever the Communist Party’s culture is at the time, that would be the Chinese culture.
One level below the level of altruism, the secondary value in Taiwanese culture is private ownership of property, and the entrepreneurship derived from this value. I suspect this was due to the South Hokkien tradition prior to 1895, or the" settler culture" between 1600 to 1895. Taiwanese are inherently selfish although overtly altruistic.
On the other side, the secondary value is class-differentiation. Chinese society operates based on class. Interaction or rapport between any two individuals start from figuring out who is the higher class and who is lower. Who is more powerful and who is less. I suspect this has to do with their imperial bureaucratic tradition and not entirely due to the Marxist worldview.
There are a lot of videos made by PRC folks travelling to or living in Taiwan. Most of them would say that the cultural differences are quite considerable. I have the same feeling when I travelled to Singapore. Other than ostensibly they can speak some Hokkien which by linguistic standard is the supposed to be same language, I feel like I had very little in common with them.
Interestingly I had the same impression when landing in LAX (Los Angeles) for the first time travelling from YVR (Vancouver). It’s not uncommon for Mainlanders folks to feel that way because most of Taiwan’s infrastructure were built decades ago.
It’s not just that, a lot of design language is more traditional. The PRC, in practise only reserves vertical signage and traditional characters for historic streets or restaurants/venues trying to ellicit nostalgia/traditional feelings. Kinda like how the US reserves british spellings for higher class things (theatre vs theater) or other old-timey things.
Modern PRC streets often take this highly planned look with signage flush on the building. Chinatowns across the world, Taiwan, HK still maintain the traditional way of streetscapes