Culturally, there does seem to be an uncontrollable urge to go in front of moving vehicles and putting oneself in harms way unnecessarily. It’s even starting to rub off on me a little 
I really do believe there is a real difference between Taiwanese and at least Americans in the evaluation of danger levels and possible outcomes. How many times I have been left shaking my head when I hear people talk about what they have done or what I see on the roads. I will never forget driving home around 11:00 at night across a long bridge. The rain was just pouring down and the wind was whipping around like crazy. In my rearview mirror I see a light approaching. A girl on a small motorcycle flies by me. Her hair is flapping like crazy on her back. I was going 55 kph in a 60 kph zone. She must have been going 75kph. My wife was amazed as the weather was just horrible but this girl was just pushing that motorcycle at a high speed no matter what. Did she have a concept about possible danger in that situation? I really don’t know but this type of incident is common here. Perhaps the same approach to danger is seen in Vietnam, Thailand, Italy…etc. I just have not been there to know…
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I call it risk assessment reversal.
But then sometimes I think I’m just paranoid.
I always enjoy your road stories
Left turn. Pedestrian island/road divider.
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I’m calling that move Le Cockroach
(still think the height of the islands is ridiculous)
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From a tort law perspective, I don’t know much about Taiwan’s legal system. However, I’ve heard that Taiwan’s Civil Code is more similar to European legal systems than to case law-based systems like those in common law countries.
Is there an equivalent of “traffic lawyers” in Taiwan, as there are in the U.S.? ps:those billboard lawyers…I suspect that traffic violations in Taiwan are primarily handled through administrative procedures rather than litigation and settlements, which are more common in the U.S.
Outside of the U.S., I’m not even sure which countries use juries to decide civil cases. From what I’ve seen in various videos here with some serious injuries, juries in the U.S. often would impose hefty settlements to punish offenders, sometimes resulting in what seem like excessive payouts. This tendency appears to be unique to America.
But there are other signs that say ‘機車可以直接左轉’
Encouraging scooters to 切西瓜. Mixed messages isnt it?
Personally i think they need to overhaul their whole turning system. Its messy. And when you combine pedestrians crossing the road its even worse.
The driver in the sign is still going over the line
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They have A-pillars
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Ban left turns?
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all streets one-way and right turn only
機車可以直接左轉 just means motorcycles are allowed to directly make a left turn, i.e. no hook turn required. Different than 切西瓜.
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Firstly traffic prioty should be a rule. Those turning left should have to wait until those driving ahead have passed. This doesn’t exist now so its just a shit show at every intersection.
No watermelon cutting. Turn at the right point into the oncoming lane.
And lastly no turns when people are crossing, just to save some hassle and inevitable accidents.
I mean unless you are going to ban tinted windows and camera fine people playing on their phone. Which i see as the harder problem to fix.
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Well thats what Taiwanese people told me when i asked. And how they drive.
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Don’t worry. Even the police can get some pretty basic stuff wrong sometimes.
Police officer pulls over woman who follows the traffic law. Flashing red light. Comes to full stop and then only slowly pulls forward as she can’t see anything from the stop line. She slows to a stop once she is able to see clearly and checks to make sure that no traffic is coming before starting to proceed through the intersection and gets pulled over by an officer.
When the lady explains to him that she was just slowing down to make sure no other cars are coming the officer just tells her repeatedly to not get excited. So according to this officer as soon as you stop at the flashing red, you are to immediately pull out into the road and cross even if you can’t see a dang thing from the stop line.
Oh and the police station saw nothing wrong with what their officer did and fully supported him rather than admitting to making a mistake.
Officer refuses to enforce the law and issue a ticket for illegal parking on a sidewalk. The officer tries to refute the person who reported it by saying see, you can still walk by…ignoring just how little space it is and how dangerous it is as it makes it more likely for someone to step on the curb and trip/fall into the road. Of course makes it impassable for wheelchair users or those with baby strollers.
Police officers pull over a white plate motorcycle for riding in the middle lane even though there’s no banning of motorcycles in that lane. The rider calmly asks there there’s no 禁行機車 road marking in the middle lane, but he’s still not allowed to ride there? The officer quips at him saying “well the expressway doesn’t have the markings, but that doesn’t mean you can go there” to which the rider calmly responds that he’s not allowed to be on the expressway to being with since he’s a white plate bike. Then the officer responds, “well you’re riding with heavy motorcycles” like that means anything.
The hilarious part is even the officer starts flipping through the manual to try and look for the relevant violation to write a ticket for the motorcyclist…and unsurprisingly he can’t find anything so he just lets the rider off with a warning.
Another one in which a motorcyclist gets told by a police officer he’s not allowed in the “fast lane”. There’s no marking banning the riding in the inner lane. Even after pointing this out to the officer the officer repeatedly says he’s still not allowed to ride in the inner lane.
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The opposite would probably work better - all left turning vehicles have right of way.
I like to think outside the box
It is, but most people don’t know or don’t care, not enforced
See above
Yup, until the number of pedestrians getting hit goes way down, everyone should have to wait
If they cant figure out lights at intersections (installing, timing, following), what hope is there?
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The one they’ve figured out is to put them everywhere. Another band-aid.
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It isn’t actually a solution, just encourages running red lights
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