Because you are biased. You can’t look at it objectively.
If you can’t see people weaving back and forth over the lane lines when they try to go down roads that aren’t straight, then there must be some explanation.
If national pride is not the reason to keep insisting that Taiwan traffic is just like the rest of the world and Taiwan drivers are more skilled, then I don’t know what it is.
Yeah, because the average driver is so bad!
Why not about skill? The driver was maybe not skilled enough to drive over a bunch of fallen leaves. Besides, isn’t driving safely a skill one must learn during driving training?
Probably less than you think. And we can adjust the question to: How many deaths in the US are caused by drivers not adjusting their driving to weather conditions? Besides, although Taiwan do not have winter conditions outside some mountain roads, it is not like the weather here is always sunny with a light breeze.
Using human made factors to justify bad outcomes is in my opinion a not valid excuse. “We drive everywhere”, “we ride scooters everywhere” and shrug your shoulders like what else we could be doing to avoid a higher death toll is not very productive.
Nevertheless:
I doubt Taiwan would be better than Korea.
Cutting people off. There are so many ways to do it also. If a driver leaves enough space to brake safely, someone cuts in there. Motorcycle in the car lane? Better push him over with my car. Pulling out onto a busy road without looking (might have to wait, the skill comes from trusting other people). Changing lanes without signalling or using mirrors…
Over time I started to pick up the subtle Taiwan clues, like if someone was signaling a right turn for a while they were likely to go left!
lol, yes! I wonder if @Andrew0409 knows the difference between confirmation bias and confirmation!
The need for traffic lights in the roundabouts is evidence that Taiwanese are in fact not skilled at handling the vehicle
Guolin MaRae
Well, it also requires an understanding that other people exist, hence the stop signs and things. Can’t teach people to give a shit about other people, if they’re old enough to drive but still haven’t got that
I think it is more than Taiwan, is the point
I’m not justifying outcomes, I’m pointing out: You can’t compare things like they are equal when they’re not.
That is the point of making comparisons, no? What is the point of comparing two things that are the same?
Compare traffic deaths in Maldives to wherever you are from. The are both countries. If we are comparing countries, the countries must be the same?
[!quote] focustaiwan.tw
A silver Mercedes-Benz sedan driven by a man surnamed Yang (楊), 66, veered into the opposite lane …
… saliva drug test returned a positive result for ketamine
about time
…
To be fair, I did not start the comparison between the US (a country I am not from and never been there) and Taiwan. I was replying to you, directly, and to others by extension, who were already comparing Taiwan with other countries:
I don’t know when making comparisons stopped to be fair. My point is that sometimes I hear people comparing Taiwan traffic to the US in a positive way for the US. CNN was the starting point of the “pedestrian hell” if I remember well. When in reality (at least from what I see in the data) is that the US is not better, or not much better, on average.
I am convinced that part of the reason Taiwan is where it is in terms of traffic is the influence of the US post Chinese civil war. If Taiwan keeps looking at the US for answers we are not going to get much better and the gap between safer developed countries and Taiwan will only continue to increase.
The driving conditions are greatly different. You have people driving long distances on interstate freeways and highways in the US.
I remember seeing a school bus do a 360 spin on black ice on the interstate freeway in Colorado, and taking out cars with it.
And I was only there for a short holiday and witnessed that.
I’m from Australia, where people driving long distances can have horrifying accidents even with just one vehicle. Fatigue and speed kills, this is particularly prevalent for rural and small town communities. I’d imagine something similar plays out in the US.
Well, then we have no choice but to wait to someone to open a multiverse backdoor to see how is Taiwan doing in other parallel universes to make a fair comparison. In the meanwhile, does this mean we can’t learn nothing about what other countries and cities are doing well because The Netherlands is not an island and Paris have good bakeries?
Compare to Japan and Hong Kong.
What part of Japan? Because some parts of Japan have harsh winters and that disqualifies the comparison I believe.
What part of Taiwan can I compare with Hong Kong? In Taiwan some people are driving Taipei to Kenting while in Hong Kong distances are much shorter.
If it is a matter of genetics, is Chinatown a valid comparison?
Most people aren’t driving Taipei to Kenting.
You could easily compare Taipei and New Taipei to Hong Kong.
I didn’t say most. You didn’t say most.
