I’ve been hit from behind when stopped at red lights 3 times here, I regularly see selfish/stupid/dangerous maneuvers on the roads, and I regularly see accidents. Not comparable to anywhere else I’ve ever lived or traveled
I haven’t spent more than a month of my life in total in the US, but never saw/heard a gun or gunshot victim
In the absense of complete and reliable statistics, I’m going to say that I feel less safe here because I have actually been hit here, and I experience near misses daily (two so far today, one was kinda my fault for not going at an appropriate speed given the likelihood of people in cars pulling out without looking)
these are isolated incidents very unlikely to cause any one tourist to california any rise in worry or danger.
Watch out for the traffic, thats a greater worry. We have had at least 3 traffic fatalities in the city of SF alone so far this month. You are NOT safe crossing on a cross walk !! These people were on a cross walk when they were hit and killed.
about guns there is a problem for one of the police and other “good guys” not knowing who is the bad guy or guys.
There was a case of a gunman opening fire and some samaritan got out his gun and shot the gunman but then the police arrived and mistook him for the bad guy and shot him dead.
If there are multiple shooters people may not know who is a good guy and who is a bad guy.
we have even had cases of undercover police being shot by regular police thinking they were baddies.
That’s a clear point in favor of US. I’m sure they drive 4-5x the mileage of taiwanese people. Taiwanese mainly drive slowly inside cities… Long distance by train or not at all…
I would love to see a comparison with km travelled vs traffic deaths…
Well yeah some people drive fast, but compared to Europe say on highway or rural roads speeds are slow. And yes it may be fast for being inside a city but slow compared to rural places.
Hence many accidents but little passengers inside car killed.
The thing is 99% here drive relaxed. No fast braking, no fast acceleration… just people aren’t attentive at all and bad drivers in general… if people drove here like rush hour in southern or central Europe it would be crazy. But well maybe they then would learn to drive …
And yes there is this 1% which drives like maniacs still with the same skillset…
You can spin the statistics any way you want, but it is what it is. There are more traffic deaths per capita in the US than in Taiwan. Just accept it even though it goes against your prejudice.
Per capita Americans have almost double the cars and drive almost double the mileage. The fact that TW has close to the amount of deaths says a lot when you consider those two. No prejudice involved
Not sure what your point is other than trying to defend the myth that the US is a safer country when it comes to traffic than Taiwan. The statistics don’t lie. If you consider that much of the US is wide open space and average traffic density is therefore much lower, this doesn’t look good for the US at all. FWIW, a common stereotype in Europe of Americans is that they are poor drivers and their driving test is a joke. My point is that if you want to argue that traffic in Taiwan is much worse than elsewhere, don’t compare with the US which is in the same league as Taiwan. Try Japan or Germany instead.
US cops mostly prefer shooting unarmed suspects, if someone has a gun, especially a rifle, they usually wait an hour til everyone’s dead before going in.
Don’t believe all the dog shooting stories. If you go hunting and someone gets shot by accident, there may be charges and an investigation. If you blame it on the dog, well it’s not like he can defend himself.
I do agree that I worry a lot more about getting hit by a car while walking in Taiwan, than I worry about getting shot in the US. I’ve lived 50 years in the US and never knew anyone personally who got shot or even shot at outside of war zones. I knew one guy who killed himself with a gun, but he could easily have used another method. Gun is definitely more foolproof and Hollywood glorifies offing yourself with a gun.
I do worry about school shootings a little, even though I know statistically it’s very rare. It’s just such a soft target. Only cops and mass shooters are allowed to carry guns near school zones. And the cops will let your kids die before they go in.
I’ve never been hit or had a near hit in all my time in Taiwan. I don’t really see many accidents either tbh. Nor have I ever been shot at, known anyone that has in the US. Gun violence was not an issue in any of the areas I’ve lived.
I honestly don’t feel either is an issue to me.
On the first day in Vietnam our driver bumped into a bike and the guy got up and just kept going without any hesitation or grievances. Idk if that’s just like a normal thing there or what. In the US a person would have rolled around pretending to die for a nice lawsuit
