Not pedestrian related, but related to bad habits (from scooters) and road design.
The “let’s make the rightmost lane as wide as possible so everyone can do whatever they want” works smoothly. For the scooter rider is also the last time it worked.
Van was signalling, low visibility (no lights from the van). Rider gambles with an overtaking on the right and losses everything.
Bonus: look at that ideally placed zebra crossing.
That is not under dispute.
Populated areas have lower speed limits precisely because humans are erratic and do stuff like this. Taking note of such conditions spares one the complications of a visit to the police station and a mention in the press.
From the news so far I haven’t heard any mention of the car going over the speed limit. Also possible that even as the scooter came out from behind the bus this might be one of the actual times the A pillar legitimately was a factor as it might have blocked the driver’s view long enough to further delay his reaction.
Had the young man took note of conditions he would have avoided an unfortunate result.
He did multiple things wrong according to the law:
I hate those gas stations and parking lots on the corners…cars come from everywhere trying to hit me whilst I’m waiting to cross.
This is another bad one I’ve walked past a few times. Cars will come pretty close to hitting pedestrians and pedestrians are forced to stand far away from the crosswalk on the one side to avoid getting hit. I’ve seen cars coming out of it that just drive on the crosswalk (nearly the full length of it) because they want to turn left…pedestrians be damned.
I’m not sure how you can get in and out that parking without driving over the zebra
Exactly…
Nothing new in this article about the guy that walked over the hood of an illegally parked car on a sidewalk. But it sure is interesting the police didn’t accept the case/report of the car that was illegally parked on the crosswalk. Also the fine for doing so is only 300-600NTD anyways, such a pathetically weak fine.
I remember someone posting that the US has higher traffic fatality rate than Taiwan, forget where…
While I really think that drivers in Taiwan have a lot more on their plates (so much stuff happens in a short section of road), I think it’s the fact that driving speed is much slower in Taiwan compared to the US that may lower fatality rates. I mean if you are doing a 20 minute drive to say Costco, you’re probably crossing much more intersections than say a 20 minute drive in say Houston, TX. So you really have to be on the ball in Taiwan, and you can’t go very fast. Whereas in the US you could be driving at highway speed (55mph) on most stretches of road, not expecting to run into anything, but in Taiwan you might be driving 55kph if you’re lucky (in most cases you won’t go over 40).
And so if some idiot cuts in front of you in the US, you’ll likely crash into them, but in Taiwan you would be able to avoid the collision.
I think what kills people a lot in Taiwan is the fact that so many people act like idiots on scooters, but also country road is probably where all the horrible accidents happen, because US like condition (driving long stretches at high speed without seeing anyone, then BAM!). Then idiots on red plate motorcycles thinking they can drive 200mph doesn’t help…
This shows that driving in Taiwan really demands much more out of a driver compared to the US. I don’t envy the bus drivers here, while some of them are complete hoons they gotta pay attention to like 20 different things at any given time.
Here’s an example of typical US driving I found on Youtube…
It’s a whole lot of nothing, and you’re really tempted to go FAST, except until a deer/tractor/idiot cuts in front of you.
In Kaohsiung the budget for road markings this year has already been completely used up, less then halfway through the year. This came about as a local politician’s coworker saw a student hit by a scooter on a crosswalk and the scooter fled the scene. The politician proposed reexamining the design of the crosswalk and receding it.
Why isn’t hit and run felony a thing in Taiwan?
Its all part of the shitty driving culture. Stupidly loud boy racer twats, parking on zebra crossings, no observations, running red lights, tinted windows, running over baby’s. All of it needs to be addressed.
Them’s fighting words!
Guy
I like this: a positive feedback loop. I hope it continues.
Guy
Sarcasm, the daft idea of banning scooters keeps getting floated on the threads, makes as much sense
I just think high speed traffic shouldn’t be allowed in the city except for expressways. Honestly cars are the least efficient way to get around. Priority should be given to delivery drivers and personal cars should be limited as much as possible.
Some cities like Taipei have spent sacks on money on sidewalk flattening work to try to be in compliance. It’s absolutely made the city better for everyone (though this change has done nothing, of course, to protect people from frighteningly incompetent drivers as shown relentlessly in the videos posted upthread).
Guy
Yes that scooter kid (now deceased?) took an atrocious route across that intersection, cutting the corner.
I guess he won’t be making that mistake again. :sorrow:
Guy
I don’t disagree with any of this, except maybe the missing and misused apostrophes. 
Guy
This raises questions of whether the budgetary allocation is sufficient, and how effectively it is spent. Or would this line of enquiry be another cul-del-sac like other analyses of Taiwan’s transport infrastructure?
