One of my biggest pet peeves about living in Taiwan is how drivers always fail to yield to pedestrians at a crosswalk when they are making a turn. This must cause hundreds of accidents a year in Taiwan, all of which are preventable.
Per the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act of the Republic of China “Any car driver who fails to yield pedestrians on a pedestrian crosswalk shall be fined from NT$1,200 to NT$3,600.”
Whenever some hot-headed local makes an attempt to swerve into a crosswalk while I’m crossing I stop, look him right in the eye, and point to the crossing sign. So far that’s gotten me two middle fingers, but if law enforcement won’t act who will?
You must act. Video your walk across the street and make sure you get their faces and their license plate clearly in the video if they fail to yield. If you get them on video giving you the finger, then sue them for violating the public insult law. $$$$
This behaviour will disappear once video recording becomes completely ubqituous.
Sad but true that people will only respect others when they know there will be repercussions.
videoing when crossing the street and trying to get the number plate is not safe at all.
but i guess its the only option. the govt doesn’t give a shit about it, most pedestrians don’t, drivers and the traffic cops also don’t care.
i was crossing the other day, there was a traffic cop right there, a group of people in the middle of the road and blue van who missed his time to cross came out and pushed through. the traffic cop did absolutely nothing, what are they being paid to do exactly?
Most of those traffic cops are not really cops at all.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the vast majority of them are taxi drivers doing some sort of service requirement. There are some that actually are cops, but most are not.
We’ll see 3rd party bystanders at busy street corners video recording, just making a little cash. Like the ones who make a living from hunting down illegal parking.
Start issuing meaningful citations for failing to yield to pedestrians.
Right turn on red being okay. Hate being stuck there waiting to turn. But, they need #1 enforced before opening up #2 or else many more people will get hit.
A while back when my youngest was still using a pram, I was crossing the street on a pedestrian green within the zebra stripes. A car raced to turn right on green without yielding. Came within about 6 inches of hitting the pram. I was furious. I just stood there staring at the tinted windshield, couldn’t see the driver. He laid on the horn and I pointed to the green pedestrian signal, the crosswalk and the pram. He got out with a golf club and raised his arms like some gorilla trying to defend its turf. I just shook my head and continued on.
In hindsight, I should have just moved on. I put my child in danger as well as myself. Not my proudest moment. Sometimes I have to stop and remind myself this isn’t Kansas anymore. I am on their turf and this is how they play the game here.
Another thing I’m curious to know…
Is it really legal here to tint the front windshield? Back home it’s illegal.
I’ve had to retrain myself to stop at Xings since I realized I’d been Taiwanized. But it’s quite dangerous because traffic behind you will sometimes keep going.
That is totally the wrong attitude to have. You can’t adapt the local’s mindset; it’s called Sanchong Syndrome. Instead, they should be ENFORCING THEIR OWN LAWS.
True, I completely agree with you about enforcing laws. Sometimes we have to pick our battles though. At that moment, in a busy intersection with an infant in a pram, I put my child at risk from a hot headed nutter. Challenging him at that moment is what I am not proud about. Had it been just myself, minus the infant, hell yeah I would have stood there all day.
yup… this is the state of things. the official law is that pedestrians have right of way when crossing, but in reality pedestrians are nothing here. the drivers are still the kings and have no responsibility, its not even their fault when they run you over… all this coming straight from the govt.
personally i try to put my safety first, i won’t step out in-front a car unless they slow down. and i will walk slowly to make them slow down even more. i almost got hit once and cussed the guy out. its not worth it as you can see from suigenesis post. the driver got violent even with a baby in a pram.
maybe we should join together and try to tackle this. i think its fair to say the locals are not going to improve it.
It’s really not too bad in Taipei. In my experience vehicles almost always yield, except those damn blue trucks and a few scooter-driving fucks. But elsewhere in Taiwan…lawlessness!
Curious…
Would it be illegal for a group of foreigners to gather together with some really big painted signs saying in Chinese, “Pedestrians have the right of way. Slow down and yield!” and just walk around town crossing the streets on pedestrian greens? Would it be considered a protest? From what I recall, foreigners are not allowed to protest.
We could even get locals in on it and make it a big event. Not disturbing the peace or rioting, just walking where it is legal to walk.
