Kickass girl.
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I think we can mark this video as the solution and close this thread now.
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I recall reading some article by a Taiwanese professor to the effect that a testing culture limits imagination (to the point where it is difficult to see oneās self in anotherās shoes), increases splitting behaviour and diminishes empathy, just cant find the link.
An interesting framing:
Personal distress and emphathic concern seem rather ā¦ muted. Of course it could be a cultural expression, so we cannot infer the internal state of the observer (and perpetrator?) of horrific behaviour.
And itās not just cars, itās pedestrians too. People walk around like without a care in the world, like theyāre the only person in the area. Sometimes I want to carry an air horn around just so I can honk at them.
Even if only 2% of the drivers and pedestrians are assholes, theyāre enough to make Taiwan a hell for everyone else.
Friend sent me a video just now. He was out for a walk and saw police ignore all the illegally parked scooters right next to the police station again. He said itās gotten noticeably worse since police stopped taking reports from the publicā¦ but that begs the question why canāt police who drive by it every single day take 30s to walk over to issue fines?
My friend said thereās about another 20-30 illegally parked scooters around the corner too, multiple signs on the sidewalk saying itās illegal.
It must feel like bailing out the ocean
I think a littering metaphor might be betterā¦they contribute by not doing anything about it and letting it get worse to the point of it being too much work to deal with so just keep ignoring it.
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Because itās like killing ants by squishing them one at a time. Seriously the problem is so serious that the entire department would be busy writing parking tickets and wouldnāt be able to do more important enforcement, such as catching thieves or murderersā¦
The police could tow every vehicle thatās parked illegally, and then they will have to tow the entire city.
I think the real issue is engineering. Thereās never parking spots anywhere, the engineering makes zero provision for parking, and parking spots are just drawn up almost as an afterthought. If you drive anywhere in Taiwan youāll realize that itās impossible to NOT park illegally.
And how are we even going to fix this?
We could penalize drivers by making the bar to get a license harder, make vehicle registration more expensive, charge city congestion tax, smog tax, pollution tax, etc. while using the revenue to build up more public transportation options so everyone would have to take public transport.
Then what about parents with children who really canāt practically use public transportation? Are we leaving them behind? What about Taiwanās crap fertility rate?
I mean they already allow babies and small children ride for free on the MRT when accompanied with their parents.
Thatās actually a good thing. Hard to find parking should be a deterrent to driving. The only issue with it at the moment is they can just pull over and park anywhere because thereās always a bit of shoulder on even small roads which is ridiculous.
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Sure, but what about people with multiple children who needs to be taken to and from school? Are you going to make them all take the MRT from now on? What if they got lots of stuff to take? This may dissuade people from having children, which isnāt something Taiwan should want.
But I know many EU cities charge congestion taxes to drive in the city.
In a perfect world theyād eliminate shoulders entirely but they exist for very good reasons.
Sure you can start booting every illegally parked cars out there but I never seen car boots here, probably because if you booted illegally parked cars, they would become obstacles that lingers on and on.
I think a shrinking population is good overall instead of overstretching resourcesā¦but this is a different topic lol.
I agree but they could be more strategically placed/planned.
Or even more docking bays for buildings or something.
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I think the problem is the population density is just too high. To have any normal supply for the various shops, residence, etc. requires a huge amount of engineering to not have the current mess.
Probably Taiwanās just copying US model when it comes to engineering and it simply canāt work with the kind of population density Taiwan has. Perhaps they might look into what say Manhattan does about this?
Weād require multiple docking bays to serve even a street. I seen places with designated loading/unloading spots. But thereās one in an incredibly busy street that isnāt going to meet any needs.
Horrible black spot during rush hour for double and triple parked vehicles is outside exit 2 of Xindian City Hall MRT station, which is right next to the police station, cops have to drive by it everytime they leave the station. They recently stuck photoās up on their Facebook page of their input to Mondayās āsaving pedestrians dayā with them supervising the zebra crossings outside the MRT station. Of course they did it from the side opposite the police station, without the illegally parked cars, however you can see the illegally parked cars in the photoās background including one where the car is parked on the zebra crossing with a passenger getting out!
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Even when free parking is available elsewhere people still seem to park as close as they possibly can to the entrance/building they are going to, typically illegally because people are just too lazy to walk (as seen with Taichungās Lalaport).
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Everything is solvable as long as one has a taste for the solution.
In some countries the back alley is for deliveries.
In other countries deliveries are scheduled at night or morning.
In some countries disruptive works (cleaning, garbage collection, fumigation etc) are carried out at night.
In some countries ā¦
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The issues regarding redesigning is way too complicated just because of how tightly packed and crowded cities are. Atleast Taipei. There isnāt enough space
For example. The road outside my house always had the delivery truck in morning taking up half the road because there is no space it can be parked and no one seems to be bothered by it.
And then there was this sidewalk which was too small and then everyone complained and the government finally made that sidewalk bigger and now the road is smaller causing traffic jams and now the drivers are complaining .except the ones on scooters who donāt care and just ride on the sidewalk.
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Problem is in taiwan they pack everything, from deliveries to garbage all during the busiest time of the day, and they wonder why traffic sucks. The only thing they do right is road resurfacing that takes place after 12am, but that isnāt something that occurs daily. I mean why canāt they do trash pickup at say 9pm or so, maybe mecause the trash music is too loud. Sometimes it just seems taiwan is just painting itself into a corner.
Like why canāt they only do deliveries until 12pm at the latest?
My neighborhood trash truck comes after 9pmā¦
Depends on their plan in your area. We get first round of trash pickup at 6pm. The second and last one between 8pm-9pm.
I get back from work to catch the 6pm one. It is usually on time. The late pick up time varies by their work load.
Higher population densities should be a reason to reduce the most space hungry mode of transportation: cars.
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