Is traffic the worst part of Taiwan's lingering third worldism?

Perhaps we would, but there seems to be a lot of difficulty here not hitting things like pedestrians on zebra crossings, or traffic islands!

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Maybe they need to change the license tests here to include little arcade-like games that test your reaction time like they do in China.

If you can drive in China without hitting anything, then you can drive anywhere in the world.

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I don’t think it’s a simple as bad reactions, the tinted windows or inability/indifference to driving between the lines for example


They aren’t parked on red, so it must be okay to park on the fricking middle of the street.

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Taiwan is beyond ridiculous. 3 cars crash against the same road maintenance vehicle within an hour.

I know, it is easy to blame unattentive drivers. But, in countries where there is really a culture of “safety first” in the workplace, there are warning signals several km before the works in progress, and the lane/s is/are cut hundred, or even thousand, of meters away of any vehicle or worker.

In Taiwan, you are lucky if you have a warning few meters before you squash some guy who’s not even wearing high visibility clothes.

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So true. Especially dangerous at night. And of course, no one slows down at night on the highway (or anywhere else).

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On top of that, detour signs don’t seem to exist here? Want to block off a 100 m stretch of street? Go ahead! No need for signs!

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Don’t you know the alternative route? Ask your GPS.

Mine says to make a uturn in the middle of the road about 40 m in front of 3 oncoming scooters so I don’t trust it.

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Hey, we solved this in another thread.

Traffic is not the problem. Many ‘developed’ countries have shit traffic too. Been to Paris recently?

No, the true sign is lack of S bends in plumbing.

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Are you referring to the extraordinary transformation of that city’s roads to make space for cycling?

If that’s what “sh&t” looks like, bring it on!

Guy

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Another example of left turns in Taiwan working only as a population reduction feature. Also an example of why the argument of roundabouts not being suitable for Taiwan because motorists won’t use them well isn’t valid (they don’t use well any kind of intersection).

The scooter starts to turn left way too early. Even if the car intended to turn left (crazy thing given the fact it was in a turn left only lane) the crash was inevitable because the central island doesn’t allow for a car to turn so early. Of course, the car was doing more illegal stuff, as it was not going to turn left.

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Good god what a sh&t route that motorcyclist took.

But what’s with this double left turn lane design? I don’t think I have ever seen that before.

Guy

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This is probably what they want to be replacing the hook turns or double turns or whatever they are called. A recipe for disaster if you ask me because people use turn left (or right) lanes as “do what I want lane”. Add the inflexible neck of scooter riders to the mix too.

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I don’t disagree. That video could well be Exhibit A in the case against this proposed change.

Guy

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Would the result in the video be any different if both of those left turn lanes were for cars? The only difference would be that a car would have gotten hit instead of a scooter.

The issue is poor execution of left turns in general. Whether the left turn was executed by a car driver or a scooter rider is not as relevant.

Taoyuan is quite dangerous, lot of traffic, bad roads without shoulders or shoulders with a lot of vehicles parked there. When riding a bicycle, I will always be extra careful when passing parked cars. Not too close, in case someone opens the door, not too far away so not to get run over. In doubt always stop and wait until there is no vehicle coming from behind.

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From the video it’s hard to tell wether the truck was passing the motorcycle or vice a versa. That said, I often see scooters/motorcycles passing other vehicles on the right.

Passing on the left is the proper way to pass.

I got hit again today. I think that’s the 5th time in less than 2 years on the roads

On a stupid frontage road where I have to be, large parked truck blocking half of it as there often is, some scooters wait to the last minute to move over and go around the truck.

Seeing this, I adjust my speed and braking distance accordingly and watch. When someone pops into moving traffic and the woman in front of me slams on the brakes, no problem for me. But I got rear ended.

I didn’t fall, just a bent license plate. The other rider fell, said she bashed her arm. She didn’t want to stick around, so off we went. Totally her fault.

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