[quote=“ranlee”]The day that they actually start pulling people over for those reasons, is the day hell freezes over.
Cops don’t pull people over for speeding, the speed cameras get a nice snapshot of you and send you a nice notice via mail. You’d be surprised how clear that picture is even though you’re doing 70-100km/h
Personally, I get pissed when a car/truck are in the scooter box at the light bc it’s pretty dangerous for a scooter to start from outside of that box, but I deal with it.[/quote]
Rule of thumb … never go over 60 km/h on a scooter, and about the scooter box, I always go and put myself in front of the car, and mostly it takes me a while to get going on green … I like to annoy piss heads.
I lived 8 years near an intersection which had at least 1000 cars/motorcycles run the red lights every day. (my calculations: 3 cars/motorcycles run the red lights per minute. 3x60=180/hour 180x24=4320/day Using 75% discount as people think I am exaggerating then is around 1000 per day.) I never saw a cop at that intersection enforcing any type of traffic rule.
Yes, friends told me that where I live now the cops have monthly targets for traffic violations. However, seems is around 30 per month. Maybe that number is completely wrong…I don’t know. If is that low then in no way will impresses the locals enough to scare them into changing their driving tactics.
Would be great if Taiwanese cops could figure out how parking tickets are used in advanced countries to control illegal parking on sidewalks/pedestrian crossings.
Seriously, why waste 1 hour arranging for a car to be towed, and accepting all the risks involved, when 30 tickets could be issued in the same period of time?
I think there is a cultural aversion to ticketing by cops and clamping. Towing is very effective if done regularly. So some cities like miaoli or Taipei city are fairly clear of obstructions.
But living in Taichung was a bizarre education in the ways of police here.
They pretty much only target scooter riders doing illegal rights and the odd drink driving campaign but very rare compared to Taipei city.
They don’t issue fines for double parking. They give you a ticket warning you you could get issued a fine. The city is controlled by gangsters of course.
In some areas you cannot park a scooter or car on pavement, think rich 7th district, in other areas its a free for all. You can even park cars on the sidewalk and the parking attendant will not ticket that car, but will charge all the cars legally parked in the white boxes instead. Many times I have seen this happen and it made my blood boil, by following the law you got charged!
They are towing with regularity in the Kaohsiung area. They roll in a few days a month where I am and I’m sure the locals are a bit shocked that they can’t triple park at intersections anymore. It was getting really bad around here at a point but I feel like this push has eased the clusterfark a little. This kind of thing, as well as ticketing (which is also being done here more) seems to be a Kaohsiung city mandate at the moment, another good sign for this city and area.
Right on red here is pretty much the worst idea ever, it’s pretty much the opposite of Canada in terms of congestion, variety of vehicles, and driver awareness.
There’s a green right turn light nearby, for some reason. So if I’m crossing on a green, the traffic turning right in front of me also has the right green. They often don’t even slow down or look, they see that green and plow right through, they have no clue the green is to simply allow them to turn right. It’s a stupid light to have really because it’s easy to misinterpret, but even so the people turning there should be aware that they don’t have the true green/right of way and that traffic and pedestrians will and can be going through…based on what’s unfolding in front of their eyes.
This is exactly what I’m talking about earlier in this thread. It should be a flashing red (like a stop sign) or at least a flashing yellow (yield) but there is no reason that it should be a green arrow (right of way implied).
No, they do pull you over. I got pulled on the freeway recently for doing 120 on a section which was limited to 100. The cop literally ran into the lane with a red light stick thing and I had to brake pretty sharpish. It was at night and traffic was almost non-existent.
I had to hang around for 10 minutes while they filled in a form, checked my license and whatever. They let me go and said I had a fine of 3000NT. Went to go and pay online, and the fine never materialized. Called the fine place, and they couldn’t find it. They asked me to come in with the slip the cop gave me so they could re-issue.
This is exactly what I’m talking about earlier in this thread. It should be a flashing red (like a stop sign) or at least a flashing yellow (yield) but there is no reason that it should be a green arrow (right of way implied).[/quote]
When I first came here, I thought that green arrow was pretty dumb, because in Canada green arrow always indicates right of way.
But to be honest, I don’t think it matters what color the light is, fools would still come flying through.
My personal favorite idiotic move is the fools who come out of a small side street (T intersection) at full speed even though people on the main larger road are going up and down and not slowing either. Its just a matter of time before I see 2 idiots get smucked at one of these intersections.
This is exactly what I’m talking about earlier in this thread. It should be a flashing red (like a stop sign) or at least a flashing yellow (yield) but there is no reason that it should be a green arrow (right of way implied).[/quote]
They’re definitely not all like that - all the green filter lights near me will only light up once the pedestrian walk light has gone red.
They’re definitely not all like that - all the green filter lights near me will only light up once the pedestrian walk light has gone red.[/quote]
Where I’m talking about there’s no sidewalk, let alone a ped. walk light. Just some ped. crossing lines on the intersection. But there are tons of people driving the wrong way as well.
Agree with Dan that it wouldn’t matter which color it was, people would go right through. Red on right here is a bad idea, period. Other aspects of driving culture have to evolve first, like understanding basic right of way stuff.
“right on red”…hmmm…I think we have seen it all…left on red, straight ahead on red, U turn on red…hell, I even have seen people drive backward through a red light.
U-TURN on RED is definitely the only way you make it around here!
Some times, left on red too… but you have to line up and form a cue in the middle of the intersection and wait for the light change.
I miss Jersey… all jug handles… no left turns in the entire state! Bet anyone not from jersey doesn’t know what I’m talking about.
[quote=“Taiwan_Student”]How come I can’t use the tag buttons to insert the video in a frame like other people
[/quote]
Don’t use the code that YouTube gives you when you click Share. Use the code you see in the address bar, which will have the word “watch” in it like this: youtube.com/watch?v=S3kXYL-YzCU
That’s the problem, especially around Taipei. Miss a turning and you’re fucked until you reach Kaohsiung, where you can legally turn left on arrows and filter lanes because they have got their shit together down there.
Please… Kaohsiung has these mandatory left turn lanes that come up with no warning. For good measure you’ve got an AH on your right that won’t let you sneak in and an AH behind you that will honk at you. Only choice is to move yourself over the line diagonally in front of the car… if he doesn’t try to move up first to block your path.
Are those “everything” arrows new? I don’t drive in the cities but a few times a year. I don’t really remember seeing them much before. They can be confusing.
In Taichung and Kaohsiung there are a lot of filter arrows, that’s why I was getting confused as to the point of this right turn on red and left turn on red debate.
The difference is probably due to the number of lanes, as Kaohsiung and Taichung were really designed for motor cars , well that’s my feeling. It is confusing of course when sometimes you don’t know if you will have a filter arrow or not.
Presumably most of the time they are speeding they are in a hurry no ? Like doing their job ?[/quote]
They’re just trying to get their donuts before the shop closes.
[quote=“lostinasia”]On increasing fines: how silly, if it’s even happening. Increasing the punishment when enforcement is basically random won’t have much of an effect on driving behaviour at all. The fines don’t need to be particularly high - they just need to enforce the laws they already have! (I believe there’s a thread about the same issue with regards to drinking and driving.)
Yes, scooters pretty much ignore the “no right on red” rule, because they’ll almost never get in trouble for it.
[/quote]
Island of Montreal and (IIRC) Manhattan are the two places in the US/Canada where right on red is illegal.
Reduced number of left turns is one of the reasons Taipei’s traffic moves at all. Also it allows the bus lanes in the center of the road to function, unlike the laughable state of the BRT in Taichung, where the bus lane is in the right lane of the center section :loco:
[quote=“Belgian Pie”][quote=“ranlee”]The day that they actually start pulling people over for those reasons, is the day hell freezes over.
Cops don’t pull people over for speeding, the speed cameras get a nice snapshot of you and send you a nice notice via mail. You’d be surprised how clear that picture is even though you’re doing 70-100km/h
Personally, I get pissed when a car/truck are in the scooter box at the light bc it’s pretty dangerous for a scooter to start from outside of that box, but I deal with it.[/quote]
Rule of thumb … never go over 60 km/h on a scooter, and about the scooter box, I always go and put myself in front of the car, and mostly it takes me a while to get going on green … I like to annoy piss heads.[/quote]
I pump it up to 70km/h on Meishual Bridge 1 from Neihu to Nanjing E Rd. Shhhhh.
Only do so since the only time I’m coming from Neihu over to Nanjing is at night, no one on the road.
Speed for me depends on traffic conditions. Traffic, at max I’m doing 30-40km/h. No traffic, probably 50-60km/h. However, I tend to keep off the roads during rush hour.
