Agreed. But I still think taxis should be allowed to drop off and pick up in some places, and trucks should be allowed to ACTIVELY unload goods in other places (meaning no walking away). However these places are not always one and the same.
The current system doesn’t allow you to hail a taxi in very many places. In many cases you have to walk to a small street to find a spot without red lines, but good luck finding a taxi in a small street.
They currently have red lines on a lot of roads simply for the sake of not impeding traffic, and it has nothing to do with safety.
Cyclist doesn’t stop for pedestrians on a crosswalk. Immediately takes a spill when trying to turn.
Another couple of pedestrians almost whiped out by a scooter who decided to illegally go around a vehicle who stopped for them. Black vehicle in oncoming lane looks like they didn’t really want to stop either.
Another attempted murder.
Scooter honking and riding up the sidewalk is spotted by a police officer who was standing just around the corner and pulls him over.
Driver in Kaoshiung is mad because he thinks a pedestrian is walking too slow and gets mad and starts honking at them and even gets out of the vehicle to argue with him and if I understand correctly had a short scuffle. Police officer shows up even pulls a gun out and even cocks it in front of them. Driver has a previous drug-related record.
Of course there is a comment blaming pedestrians purposely walking slow and playing on their phones even though there is no mention of phones and I would be willing to be hundreds of thousands of road users are illegally using their phones when driving most of the time. These kinds of comments come up all the time even when a phone isn’t even involved at all.
Tainan is considering a city ordinance that will permit car and scooter own parking in qilou/arcades. It would also permit owners to do business in the arcades. Property owners would have to leave 1.5 meters of space for pedestrians.
It’s not clear to me that this will pass. Still, it’s a sign of the lack of consensus about these issues in Taiwanese society that leads to disputes, lack of enforcement, and diffidence.
It’s also good to remember that for at least 1/3 of the population, things have improved vastly. In 1987, more than 8,000 people died in traffic accidents. Getting it down to 3,000 was real progress.
It is pretty much except in Taipei City. Even here things get a little spotty in edge districts like Wenshan and Nangang. But in general, Taipei is light years better than anywhere else in Taiwan in terms of unobstructed sidewalks and clear qilou. It’s not perfect–youbikes compete with pedestrians for sidewalk space and there are no sidewalks on many smaller streets. New Taipei is an entirely different matter.
If you ever come up here and live for a few weeks, I promise that you will really notice the difference. It is dramatic. Other cities know that this is the new standard and are at least talking about moving in that direction despite considerable local opposition. But what Tainan is proposing (well, some city councilors) is high regressive.
