Saw a guy squeeze through an intersection last night getting the last seconds before the light changed to green for the other direction. He beeped his horn several times while doing it to warn others though, so its ok! considerate guy.
On the way back 20 mins later there had been a crash with a car and scooter, surprise surprise there would be a crash when people constantly drive like that at such a dodgy intersection. Right in front of a police station an all. It’s a mad house out there and I feel its getting worse.
Agree however about some of the idiot pedestrians out there who think playing games on their phone is more important than, you know, actually looking up and not crashing into me.
You and I treat typically phones like we treat televisions—a device that can be used for specific purposes, for a short amount of time.
The phone addicts out there (no doubt with unlimited data access) treat their phones like we might treat eye glasses or shoes. They appear to believe it is an integral part of their being, and no one around them seems to point out that this practice causes trouble for and possible conflict with others (the latter phrase is used in Japan to tell people to get off their phones while walking in the metro system ).
Also posted on reddit. Taiwan sub and urbanhell sub.
Some people seem to believe that the original poster is a Mainland Chinese troll. Others commenting that it’s better than the Philippines at least or it’s not that bad. Others pointing out it’s an issue that needs to be addressed or quite normal outside of Taipei to not have sidewalks. Various comments of different views/takes.
After being shared on social media and local news the public works dept. has gone to see what improvements can be made.
How about this one. Lady drivers into a boy, boy has to twist his body around to avoid getting hurt. Boy runs away and lady just keeps on driving like nothing happens. Guy on a scooter goes after the lady to tell her she hit someone.
I see situations like that almost every day, without exception.
In a way, I’m sympathetic to the delivery guys, who need to get things done.
The problem as I see it is that the inadequate road design does not make any designated space for delivery people. How about taking away some of the parking spots and creating dedicated delivery truck spots? God knows everyone in Taiwan is getting stuff delivered to them . . . If they don’t like it, they can stop ordering all that stuff online.
The other problem is then they face the same problem as pedestrians even if you have designated parking areas on every street/block for them. No sidewalks (or full of scooters and cars) to transport stuff to the stores, the qilou is all uneven or completely blocked off, or are forced into the middle of the road with a potentially large package…therefore the easiest thing to do is just park literally in front of where you are delivering to every time. This is also ignoring how everyone is in such a hurry all the time too.
In other news, Taichung opened up another street, 160m long, so that drivers no longer have to go all the way around thus saving some time (5-10 minutes). However, you can see there is 0 space for pedestrians despite all the money they spent to work on this project. At least if you get hit walking by this street you are close to ZhongShan Medical University/Hospital…granted that didn’t help at all for the Iraqi father/husband of the recently killed wife and child who were literally right next to the hospital.
Well…I feel like Taichung isn’t living up to it’s potential, at least as far as improvements walkability.
Even getting on the bus is hard with how often scooters and cars block both the qilou and the sidewalk and park in the bus stop zone, all with the police driving by or staring right at it and seeing nothing wrong.
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