Reading this thread makes me think, as an avid road cyclist, even though it’d be really expensive, fore and aft cameras on my bike running at all times might not be a bad idea.
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I hope you post this idea in the cycling forum and see what people say. I’d be interested in reading this.
Guy
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Other things I’ve seen: there’s road called zhinan road that comes down from Maokong, where I often cycle, and I usually go down that hill back toward the riverside. First a white car came racing up it out of nowhere, then went flying past me on this very narrow road with maybe six inches to spare. Then, five minutes later, half a dozen scooters came racing up after it, including one guy who overtook the rest by going onto the wrong side of the road, thereby, for a few unpleasant moments, coming straight toward me.
And a few weeks back I was on the bike and pedestrian path connecting Yonghe/Banqiao to Taouyan when I happened to glance sideways at the busy road opposite and saw a big wooden pallette go flying off the back of a truck and crashing into the road. Sheer bloody luck there weren’t any scooters or cars behind that truck at the time, although neither was the road quiet. Did they stop? Nooo, just kept right on going.
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Would absolutely attach cameras if I was a regular cyclist, hell I’m considering installing one of the pen style motorcycle ones in a messenger bag just for walking around!
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A post was merged into an existing topic: Is traffic the worst part of Taiwan’s lingering third worldism?
Here’s one of those videos people do showing walking around an area. This one shows the area around ShiDa after it has been turned into a pedestrian priority zone and had widened sidewalks and other improvements. Ironically enough a scooter rider turning right fails to yield to the person filming at at 5:40 in the video 
This looks amazing compared to most of Taichung…hell we still don’t have any pedestrian priority areas being planned yet.
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Calling a car centric street a “pedestrian priority zone” just because it has a sidewalk tells us everything we need to know about Taiwan’s mindset.
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Shida Road’s distribution of space (sidewalks, parks, lanes for motorized vehicles including the 74 bus) does not in my view make it “a car centric street.” To the contrary: it looks brilliant compared to the horrible misallocations of space in many other communities in Taiwan.
Guy
It’s not criminally car centric like 99.9% of Taiwan. I haven’t been there yet after these changes but from what I see in the video it still gives priority to private motor vehicles. In any case, if pedestrians can only cross the street in designated areas at designated times, it can never be considered as “pedestrian priority”.
What I see in the video would be considered a normal street in Europe. Except for the number of scooters and store signs.
It’s still an improvement, sure. Welcome Taiwan to Europe 30 years ago.
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I am going to push back a bit here.
I’m seeing way more youbike usage lately—young, old, foreign, local, lots of users out there. This is an improvement and at least a shift away from car centric thinking.
And while I truly hate the narrowing of pedestrian crossings that has been aggressively implemented by the Chiang Wan-an government in Taipei, I do think these new changes along Shida Road (next to one of the most politically connected neighbourhoods in the capital, it must be said) should be applauded and not just criticized without seeing it in person.
I agree however that the “pedestrian priority” part you criticized is stupid and obnoxious, dialectically signalling its obverse: that other places in Taipei are indeed pedestrian hostile!!!
Guy
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When officially sanctioned cycling on the ‘人行道’ is an improvement that is a moment to wonder too if you ask me. Cycling on the footpath is not an insignificant risk for very old and very young pedestrians, and it contributes to normalising the scooters on the sidewalk + a small number of cyclists cycle quickly on the footpaths. My youngest was knocked on his back by a youbiker that came from out of nowhere and crashed into us last year. She continued cycling on the footpath after the collision too. Took me a while to put 2 and 2 together but there is actually a youbike station on that same footpath. So it looks like its actually planned to have cyclists on the footpath.
I know someone whose elderly mother was hospitalised and broke her hip - probably took years off her life - when hit by a scooter on a new Taipei footpath.
And then there is the beetlenut stalls: establishments whose actual purpose is selling a mind altering substance to motorists? Like its surprising then that driving under various influences is a phenomenon that occurs.
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I totally applaud changes in this direction. My criticism comes from calling this a pedestrian priority area. Because if they think this is a pedestrian priority area, then they’re not changing their mindset fast enough.
Also, no bike lanes.
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That is a criminal offence that should involve the police. With or without the police, I hope your child is OK.
Now do something hard. Imagine your youngest getting hit by an SUV. That may also be a criminal offence but with consequences on a different scale. Hence my firm enthusiasm for getting out of our car centric system, which causes more harm in many different ways.
Guy
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Yes and the police have eyes too: this collision happend outside a police station that has a youbike station on the footpath, and cycling on the path is routine. Thats the point.
Absolutely, I agree there, it is an improvement.
Did you file a report?
Guy
No, I thought that would be too petty, plus I can see why they cycle on the footpath. But just saying it is kind of unsettling when dangerous behaviour is - pretty much objectively - an improvement.
Disagree. Cycling on the pavement and riding a scooter on the pavement are unrelated. Done for different reasons.
The official cycle lanes are on the pavement so that is the default cycling location.
Yes people ride like retards, especially teenagers who ride like headless chickens. I consider that an education problem related to the overall traffic problem (They walk like retards and drive like retards too).
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Yea it’s kind of extremely complex and near omnipresent.
Having that said there are places like the Netherlands to look at when aiming to reconcile pedestrians, bikes, scooters and cars, and Hong Kong for reconciling pedestrians and cars.
Kinda needs a fundamental social, geographical, cultural change: but like that is what is happening as history proceeds anyway things are changing. Is it getting better or worse I guess is something to consider.
The Netherlands style bike lanes on the road would require a lot of work.
As the outer most lane would be used for riding, and that lane always has parked cars and some kind of riff raff in it which is really dangerous for cyclists.
Seems lots of progress is being made in europe about pedestrian only zones, Taiwan is just way behind on this unfortunately.
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Taichung’s famous JinHua N. Road a.k.a. Evolution N. Road has once again had another pedestrian island hit. The road is famous for many of its pedestrian islands being hit many times in a short time period. This time a driver drove right into it. Happened in the early morning today.
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