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

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1516

Fully convinced that the stupid levels of window tinting contribute a huge amount to Taiwan’s traffic issues.

At least it can be entertaining.

On the flip side this may make the police even less likely to fine people! They’ll currently find any excuse, this year they started rejecting whistleblower reports of many failure to give way to pedestrians on pedestrian crossings where the drivers had illegally turned left to get to the crossing it took a court ruling to get them to start accepting the reports as valid and actually fining the drivers. With the higher fines they fear appeals from the drivers, they will also rarely issue fines against taxi drivers due to complaints/appeals.

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1517

I think the guy in front has the right to be upset even though he started crossing over a double line RIGHT before a light. If you listen closely to the video, you’ll notice that the driver of the car who recorded this video does that thing where they signals and immediately starts changing lanes. Once he changes lanes HE SPEEDS UP(you can hear his engine rev).

And speaking of speeding up where unnecessary, they should really have speed cameras in school zones. People who think they’re cool with their Subaru or whatever the hell that has spoilers on it will speed down the street in front of my apartment building…which is right in front of an elementary school where there’s clearly school zone signs :roll_eyes:. I’ve seen many kids just run across that street out of the blue.

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1518

The guy in front slams on his brakes when the camera car sounds his horn, his left brake light doesn’t appear to work, you can see when he gets back in his car it doesn’t light up either. Both contributed to the accident.

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1519

Oh! Didn’t even catch that.

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1520

Sad news, United flight attendant killed on a Taipei street:

Linko:
凱燕男酒駕「撞死違規過馬路聯航空少」！身分曝光 (yahoo.com)

1521

Look at the huge damage on that car from just hitting a pedestrian.

Looks like Renai Road.

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1522

If I remember correctly, this fatal collision occurred on Dunhua South Road. It appears that the now-deceased person attempted to cross this very wide road at night by cutting through the wooded islands in the middle. RIP.

Guy

1524

You’ve made the point before that it was a huge error of judgement.

1525

Saw a motorcycle which attached two metal bars to the frame (right and left side) to attach blue LED lights about one meter high. Sure made the motorcycle very easy to spot. Did note the lights were very bright so lit up the houses along the street where he drove.

1526

Just drove a car in Taiwan for the first time in a very long time. Also spent a long summer in Spain, driving when I needed.

When I went out of the parking with artificial lighting I was like, wow, this is a dark night. It’s true that our street doesn’t have a lot of light, but I couldn’t see a damn thing and I didn’t know why. Then, I remembered: tinted windows.

It’s true that properly working eyes adapt to the situation and after a few moments you can see better. But it is also true that you can see much better in the night without tinted windows.

It was a short drive, but I had my idiot in a scooter turning right into the street without looking, and at speed. I had to briefly touch the horn and he had to do an emergency stop. Then I stopped by his side, moving my arm and saying “where the fuck you’re going” to him. He probably didn’t saw me (tinted windows) nor heard me, but I just wanted to delay him for a few seconds.

I miss driving in Europe already.

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1527

Membrillo compartiendo experiencias Is traffic the worst part of Taiwan's lingering third worldism? - #1402 by fonserbc

No descarto que lo que pase es que estames cegados por el sol que hace en la península, y necesitemos más luz de lo normal.

Now back to English.

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1528

Today’s Taipei Times

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1529

Pretty awful article, I wasn’t surprised to get to the end and see the author is a poet

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1530

A native English speaking translator would have helped, but I’d have felt sorry for the poor sod.

1531

Lee Min-yung (in translation) appears regularly in the Taipei Times op-ed section. Yes he’s a poet and yes his meandering points may not be bolted to the ground via hyperlinks and sources. But that’s not the genre in which he is writing—it’s instead a Chinese essay, translated as ably as possible by the excellent Liu Yi-hung to convey a problem (bad behavior on the road), some background (KMT rule, unplanned urban spaces, cowardly politicians), to arrive at a punchline: “Without its society firmly founded upon a modern order, Taiwan would not be considered a truly beautiful country.”

Given the genre, I don’t think this piece is that bad. He’s trying to shame his readers into doing better, with a different way of relating to one another and a different vision for the futures of our communities. Short on details, big on vision.

Guy

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1532

Public transport and a well behave traffic are the best signs of development and civilisation.

Public transport gives you the choice of either driving or being brought there, with less people driving by using transit, the ones actually driving have a far better experience and safety. It is the most essential expression of liberal developed societies.

Taiwan needs to really get a grip on traffic, it is just a mayhem and no so called politician has the balls to do proper planning to improve the situation.

Milan was at a standstill in the 80s for traffic, cars literally parking in front of Duomo in the central square, killing hundreds in the small medieval streets. Then came the pedestrian zone. Tourists started to enjoy streets actually built for them. Then the congestion zone, like London’s one, and less cars travelling in the city centre. More and more underground lines being built, railways being redeveloped, busses increased and tram modernised. Finally Milan can feel modernity.

Taipei is doing good with MRT, busses are quite widespread, but until they are driven by taiwanese in taiwanese traffic, it is a safety hazard and not a pleasant experience.

Really need to do proper traffic zoning, with pedestrian only areas à la Ximending (huge success), congestion charges zones and areas only accessible to residents or authorised people. Increase parking fees all over the board for street parking and use them to subsidise public transport. Increase fuel taxes to subsidise public transport.

Gas is way too cheap, cars way too big for the small lanes of taiwanese cities (since gas cheap, who cares about smaller gas -efficient vehicles?).

Developed countries pride themselves of having wealthy people riding public transport, need to do that too here, density allows it in Taipei/xinbei, Taoyuan and Kaohsiung.

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1533

Successful in Ximending doesn’t mean it works universally. A couple years ago they tried turning a part of Gongguan into a pedestrian-only zone and failed. Both businesses and motorists pushed back against it.

1534

Gongguan is a hot steaming mess, with Tingzhou Stroad (@Marco will understand this term) and a disarticulated grid layout. It’s a traffic mess that is also, in places, unpleasant to walk. But with the compression of space and the large instititions nearby (NTU on one side; the water company on the other) it’s hard to see a quick fix here, other than to not have so damn many cars and scooters zooming through the 'hood.

Guy

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1535

Gas is expensive here compared to a lot of places.

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1536

Compared to places like Kuwait or Libya, indeed it is. However, compared to most countries that aren’t able to extract their own it is very cheap.

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