Directing traffic despite there being traffic signals doing the exact same thing
To be fair, I saw a bunch of scooters stop at a yellow light today that they would have all othetwise gone through, and they stopped because a guy stepped out and waved his magic wand at them
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Sip tea at the precinct.
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And food delivery people.
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Itās not an easy gig. But after being cut off, having my bike nearly clipped, etc I now call the aggressive delivery drivers RUDE PANDA. 
Guy
They just think they are an essential service with emergency priorities.
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Cant disagree with that. They can be pretty damn agressive and dangerous for sure!! have seen a couple locations (taitung city and Taipei city) where police were ticketing them for parking illegally. I must admit, i had zero pity.
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Many locals will not disagree with this.
I always said if there was money in grass laying we would be cows by now.
I wonder where that photo was taken.
Interestingly that was for both bikes and pedestrians.
You see it going back to this in some city areas now. Most towns and suburbs are still really shit though.
A lot of folks also dont know that the KMT also occupied many city parks with their camps.
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Damn thatās stupid. The problem is the police are not fit for purpose.
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Makes you wonder when this TW traffic ācultureā started. Obviously in the Japanese period there were almost no cars in Taiwan, or very limited (and also driving on the left side of the road). Then when cars became mass affordable it became an instant shitshow for pedestrians?
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My opinion is combination of factors:
- Car driving skills. The standards here have always been low. Most people over 50 did not start driving when they young, having bought their own car later in life. Most people only had taxi drivers as an example how to drive. Almost no one was taught about driving safetyā¦here driving skills are only thought of in terms of how fast can drive and how to squeeze into small spaces. Driving schools allow people with little knowledge about road safety to pass their tests.
2)Relatively little enforcement of traffic rules. There is much focus on those speed cameras but those are relatively few and almost none in many downtowns. Well, the general lax nature regarding stopping traffic violations has been talked about alot here.
3)Motorcycles given even more lax treatment. Why can a stream of motorcycles drive very fast between moving cars on an extremely crowded roadā¦weaving in and out very close to cars? Oh, and how many old people in the countryside donāt have licenses? Alot.
My father taught me to drive. He never had an accident or a traffic ticket. He drove trucks for the last 20 years of his life. I had a serious training in high school and an actual road test with a cop for my license. When I am a passenger in my relativesā carā¦heck, they even say no need to look at what cars behind you are doingā¦just stay in front of them.
As mentioned here beforeā¦I know a woman who does not know what the double lines on the road meanā¦her husband is a policeman.
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Can anyone imagine the current traffic ācultureā in Taiwan being the same if Japanese rule continued after 1945?
Yeah me neither.
Guy
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When I talked about this to my sister back home (Belgium), she replied that when we were kids cars did not have to yield and that we were educated to always look left and then right before crossing, even when there was a traffic light. And then I found this article from last year.
Apparently some places in Europe are still facing some problemā¦
Just over half of drivers (54%) said they always stop when a pedestrian is crossing, while 42% usually do. The remainder, presumably, accounts for those who actually accelerate on approach in order not to lose vital seconds getting where theyāre going.
On the negative side, 9% of pedestrians said they have had to force a driver to stop to allow them to pass, a figure that rises to 13% in Brussels.
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Pedestrian friendly design in front of elementary school in Taoyuan (bottom picture of a crossing at an elementary school in Japan). Got to squeeze/slip though for the parents or big kids, got a wheel chair? good luckā¦
This picture was floating around on a few local Facebook pages that discuss pedestrian issues and improvements.
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I gave that a ālike.ā
But even I would need to admit that comparing Taoyuan to Japan is like shooting fish in a barrel. 
Guy
Iām pretty sure they had to put those poles there because of the people that would drive scooters right onto the sidewalks. But I agree that it is terrible for wheelchairs.
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