I love living in Taiwan, I do, and have so many good things to say about the place. The one thing I hate is getting into the back of a taxi and finding that the seatbelts have been removed. They really need to modernize their seatbelt laws. An innovative reminder of this message:
If you know anyone in the government, pass it on.
What a stupid movie…
Wife and daughter grab him by the balls and in a reflex he kicks away the table???
:roflmao:
Well, being inside a taxi at least saves you from getting hit by that piece of shit steering it.
(I am actually not 100% sure about that even.)
I hate them all.
Better invest your energy in making them not cross half of the red traffic lights!! :bluemad:
Very nice, but it needs more cutesy little cartoon characters that look like animals and happy policemen.
I have never had this happen. If i got into a cab without seatbelts I would get out.
Cabs have seatbelts? News to me…
shrugs I take many cabs and they all have seatbelts. Maybe it is a taipei city thing?
I always find it mind-boggling that many Taiwanese people will insist that you wear a seat belt in the front seat, yet most of the time they don’t even have seat belts in the back seat.
Really? Half the locals I know take it as an insult when you go for the belt.
“What? You think I’m such a bad driver??”
Really? Half the locals I know take it as an insult when you go for the belt.
“What? You think I’m such a bad driver??”
[/quote]
I am beginning to think that the half of locals I see in my daily life is generally the half that forumosans do not usually talk about.
I have been saving a picture thats relates to this and now I finally get a chance to use it:
Thank You OP!
I mean in the back. I got tired of digging, digging… nope, no cigar. 
I asked quite a few TWese, and this seems to be the way it is:
TWese generally do not desire to use seat belts
The law says you have to use them in the front seats
Even TWese don’t care much for laws, Traffic controls are so frequen that TWese just use them - in the front.
Since in the rear the law does not require seatbelts, and noone uses them anyway, taxis etc. remove / hide them.
And yes, #1 is incredibly stupid. Like with helmets on the scooter: They need to wear them or they get fined frequently. So this is why they wear a helmet, even only few people would do so without a law saying they have to. I guess valuing your own life is not so common here, or maybe thinking about consequences is not?
(End of rant ;-))
Yes I am in Taipei. I’d estimate at least 90% of taxis don’t have seatbelts in the back. The newest cars - station-wagons in particular for some reason - are your best bet.
Not a problem when traveling solo, I just get in the front. Bit of an issue when you have children with you though.
Well, to be fair seat belts were highly resisted in the west first, and not just by consumers. There was a group (including Vietnam-war planner Robert McNamara) working at Ford in the 40s and they were asked by management how to make cars safer. Well a bunch of engineers did some research and came up with a not-too-surprising answer: safety-belts. Even back then there was more than enough data to prove it. Management rejected their dollars-a-car innovation though, predicting that consumers would never pay extra for something ad unsexy as vehicle safety.
But what you may not know is that the laws for seatbelts in the West didn’t come from well-meaning governments. The governments were pressured by insurance companies in the USA once they realized less injuries and less fatalities meant less insurance payments. Like the old saying goes, follow the money!
Do they have legally-required car insurance here like in the West? If so maybe it’s an angle we could get the insurance industry working on. If it worked in America it might work here…
That’s a good point. Of course, also in my country there are some people that oppose to seat belts, mostly because they are “uncomfortable”…
[quote=“gamemaker”]
Do they have legally-required car insurance here like in the West? If so maybe it’s an angle we could get the insurance industry working on. If it worked in America it might work here…[/quote]
Yes, they do. The very basic insurance that is required pays for your opponent’s injuries. So… the insurances might figure they have to pay less if the people in the opponent’s car wear seat belts also in the rear.
So, who knows some car insurance people around here, to give them the idea to lobby for a “seatbelts MUST be worn, wherever you sit” law?
When we bought our van we had to ask for seatbelts in the back for the kids and paid an extra $3000 for them. They broke right away too.
I’ve never had anyone criticize me for wearing them, though I don’t in the back, generally.
Taiwan’s insurance industry is more concerned about things like losses due to deliberate vandalism by the insured, a common problem because Taiwanese don’t like to pay all that money out and get “nothing” in return, and the pervasive habit of bad drivers simply registering/purchasing vehicles in wive’s or children’s names and going on driving.
Awesome pic of your g/f, TainanCowboy.
In Illinois it’s not illegal to not wear seat belts in the back seat.
[quote=“TainanCowboy”]I have been saving a picture thats relates to this and now I finally get a chance to use it:
Thank You OP![/quote]
Hey now! You keep posting a few of those babies on your political posts and you might make a right wingnut out of me yet! Yes mother, more guns is good, num num num num num… bitties :bravo:
We have a baby seat that relies on a seat belt to secure it in a car, ideal for taxis except in Taipei where half of them don’t have any. My wife’s family still ask if we can just carry the baby on out knee if there are too many people and it means 2 cars with the baby seat. What happens to all those seat belts? Are they selling them to Aussies?
I hate wearing them and don’t when in countries that don’t require them, I also didn’t wear a helmet when I was on a bike in Vietnam, but I believe people should have the choice to secure themselves and their loved ones.
“We may look cute, but if you break the law, we’re hauling your ass to JAIL!”