Is this true for overtaking cyclists?
You’re not meant to cross double yellow in any circumstance.
So, another example of Taiwan not having a clue.
What are we supposed to do on a mountain road with endless double yellow? Stop every time a motor vehicle is approaching to let them pass?
What are motor vehicles supposed to do? Wait one hour behind the cyclists until the road engineers decided to paint some not double yellow? Damn whit the cyclists and pass them without keeping a safe distance because a strip of paint is more important?
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The double yellow isn’t about what you are passing, it is about not having a head on collision with oncoming traffic.
Cars and trucks should slow down and wait if they can’t pass a cyclist either safely or legally.
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Yeah, good luck with that.
In my country it’s allowed to pass cyclists even with a continuous white line (we don’t have double yellow) as long as visibility allows for a safe pass and there’s a minimum of 1.5 m between the cyclist and your vehicle. This means that the safety distance trumps the painted line, because, well, a life is more important than paint. Therefore, it’s allowed to invade part or the totality of the opposite lane to overtake a cyclist. It takes a few seconds, compared to overtaking another motor vehicle.
Here in Taiwan some drivers are reluctant to cross the double yellow, not so much to overtake, and that’s when we might have a problem.
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It is ethically wrong and illegal to cross the double yellow line.
The painted line is about safety, the risk of a head on collision trumps overtaking weekend warriors on their bicycles.
Reciprocity …..that’s an arrangement that the powers that be merely pay lip service to. I’m guessing that they had one bad experience with a driver with one of those licenses and decided on a form of collective punishment
Australian states stopped recognising Taiwan licences for licence swap, as they decided it didn’t meet their standards. Taiwan retaliated within a month.
Reciprocity isn’t a sound basis for recognising foreign licences. It means Taiwan recognises some pretty tin pot places no questions asked. Taiwan doesn’t seem to take anything else into consideration, their list is the list of jurisdictions that recognise Taiwan licences and nothing more.
Well, sometimes in Taiwan there are curvy roads with dangerous dashed lines, and stretches safe to overtake with double lines, so I might argue it is unethical to keep allowing Taiwanese engineers to paint lines that encourage people to ignore the laws.
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Even if the lines are well thought (or should I say thought at all) nobody is going to drive behind a cyclist doing an average of 13 km\h for several kilometers. Therefore, it is safer to allow drivers to overtake cyclists in safe circumstances (yes, it can be safe to overtake a small and slow vehicle in places where it would be unsafe to overtake a big and just a tad slower vehicle than yours) than to make them think that the double yellow line is more important than the human being in front of them.
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I guess the only way one can complain about this issue is if your practice app test is provided by the actual government authority. If not, there is no case to be found in this specific complaint. Find a better app (or just read the government websites that give you the actual exact answers….plus a tiny bit ofncommkn sense). If it is a governemnt app, add it to the list of a few thousand issues with the governments ‘ traffic realm ineptitude 
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Pingtung local councilor working hard to make pedestrian hell stick around.
A guy went to local public meeting about discussion regarding sidewalk improvement plans and it basically ended in support for narrowing sidewalks and removing the sidewalk curb extensions, effectively increasing the dangers and risks pedestrians face.
One of the councilor’s, Zeng Yixiong ( 曾義雄 ) basically hijacked the meeting and being dismissive to say the least.
I’ll put the AI translated part involving him first here:
A councilor, Zeng Yixiong, somehow became the host midway, yet kept speaking without any meeting procedure, holding the microphone and monopolizing the discourse.
Councilor: “So, would you dare let your daughter stand at the edge of the current sidewalk?”
Me: “Unless the sidewalk has guardrails or is made solid, everyone will just ride their scooters onto it.”
Councilor: “So you wouldn’t dare!”
Me: “Then who removed the yellow soft barriers in the first place?”
Councilor: “So you agree sidewalks are dangerous?”
Me: “I don’t agree.”
Councilor: “I don’t need everyone to like me.”
CoPilot translation of post:
First, the conclusion:
If your community also has a similar public meeting about transportation issues, you must make every effort to attend. One person’s voice may be small, but when many gather together, it becomes firm and strong.Yesterday, I attended the briefing on sidewalk improvements along Huazheng Road.
If nothing changes, the corner extensions for pedestrian space will likely be cut back, sidewalks may be reduced, and the shoulder and informal scooter lanes will be added back.
After these adjustments, how much pedestrian space will remain?
Honestly, I don’t know.
But that is indeed the choice of the Huazheng Road community—and not showing up to express an opinion is, in itself, also an opinion.During the meeting, I kept repeating:
With the sidewalk, I can finally hold my daughter’s hand and walk from the Ruiguang Green Corridor to the convenience store.
But most of the voices in the room were:“Society has changed, nobody walks anymore.” “If I have to take a longer turn, I might fall.” “Since vehicles enter the sidewalk, we should shrink the sidewalk.”The voices supporting the preservation of existing pedestrian space and design were very few—
Or rather, almost only mine.There was even a surreal scene:
A councilor, Zeng Yixiong, somehow became the host midway, yet kept speaking without any meeting procedure, holding the microphone and monopolizing the discourse.Councilor: “So, would you dare let your daughter stand at the edge of the current sidewalk?”
Me: “Unless the sidewalk has guardrails or is made solid, everyone will just ride their scooters onto it.”
Councilor: “So you wouldn’t dare!”
Me: “Then who removed the yellow soft barriers in the first place?”
Councilor: “So you agree sidewalks are dangerous?”
Me: “I don’t agree.”
Councilor: “I don’t need everyone to like me.”But is this really about whether people like you?
The value of people, the value of a city, the value of engineering design—
All of it was swallowed by his opening line:
“I’ve studied transportation for thirty years, and I’ve never believed in experts or scholars.”And yet Pingtung, last year, had the third-highest rate of traffic deaths and injuries in Taiwan.
Why?
Because some people simply don’t believe transportation is a profession.After the meeting, the conclusion was quickly reached:
In February next year, the road markings will be adjusted.
The room erupted in applause,
But no one seemed to care—
That the Zhuangjing–Huazheng intersection has always been an accident hotspot.
Continuing old habits is just copying history.I felt very sad.
About 80% of those present,
Within the next twenty years, will be too old to continue driving.
I hope they will remember this meeting:
Remember how they said, “There is no walking demand.”
How they handed the city over to vehicles.
How they rationalized cars invading sidewalks.
Because when that day comes, they too will be pedestrians.Finally, to you reading this:
If your community also has a similar public meeting on transportation issues,
Please make every effort to attend.
Two hours can determine the direction of the city for the next thirty years.
It’s worth taking leave from work, worth bringing your family along.
Your voice may be small,
But when many gather together, it becomes firm and strong.Let’s encourage one another.
I believe this is the road that is being discussed. Street view is from 2024 so probably before the recent changes were made.
Along this road there is a school and a park. Like a significant number of roads in Taiwan it’s a 4 lane road that in reality only functions as a two lane road since the outer lane is full of illegal obstructions and illegally parked vehicles and the police and local govt. do nothing. Could easily convert the road into two lanes and having an additional left turn lane at the intersection and put in sidewalks while still keeping roadside parking bays.
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A gravel truck driver that ran a red light and seriously injured a scooter rider has been given a 1yr. 2 month sentence. The incident happened July last year in Taichung.
Truck driver ran a red light and severely injured the scooter rider, causing his left leg below the knee to be amputated, paralyzed and bedridden and requiring constant care. The rider to this day has yet to regain consciousness. This is the sentence the driver received even when there’s been no settlement or compensation.
News video from last year when the incident occurred.
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Only a Facebooky at the moment. Is there any hope for Taiwan!?
Here’s a youtube link.
The officer has already received demerits and fines after it was reported to the ZhongHe police. Well maybe the most effective thing is the story being picked up by the media rather than reporting it. Sad thing is…this officer is not just a regular officer, but a traffic officer.
He tries to do the usual beat out everyone else and turn first as soon as the light turns green and realizes there are pedestrians and has to stop while at the same time getting in the way of the cammer who just gives him a simple single honk. The officer gets upset then decides to argue with the driver saying that turning vehicles yielding to vehicles going straight isn’t an absolute rule…except article 102-7 of the ROC Traffic Safety law states that turning vehicles must yield to vehicles going straight at intersections.
If anything it seems like the cammer honking is what really forced the officer to stop rather than the pedestrians. The cammer might’ve saved those pedestrians from this officer. There was clearly still a pedestrian crossing and the officer would’ve ran right into him.
The police try to make themselves look…less bad by saying the officer thought the car driver had an emergency when everyone can see the officer is just upset at being honked at. The officer tells the guy to pull over to the side and the driver asks the officer to please move his motorcycle so he can safely turn and pull over, otherwise he’d just hit the motorcycle. The officer keeps going back and forth with the guy before he finally moves his motorcycle and the driver turns and pulls over to the side of the road where the officer again tries to play word games with the driver.
All this while the officer was supposed to be responding to a traffic accident. He also got in trouble not just for his conduct but failing to activate his police lights to indicate he was on duty while he was responding to a traffic accident.
The officer said that just because he doesn’t have his siren on does it mean he’s not a police officer?
Here’s the original post on Threads from the car driver.
Don’t need hope when you’re already one of the best! Don’t forget, Taichung proudly shares that it surpasses Tokyo in terms of walkability and is top 4 in Asia! 
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He’s certainly internet famous now, story is blowing up on all platforms!
Problem is always related to education and culture, which influence each other.
Policeman does not know the traffic rules because of faulty education, or does not care because of a lax attitude, based on culture.
In the end it’s all because we are humans, humans are flawed and make mistakes. All you can do is try and improve each situation. There is no perfect environment or behavior that can be achieved, because that is not how the world works. Sigh. 
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Pedestrian already in the crosswalk and a scooter rider just rides right into them. Happened next to a school in Taichung.
Speaking of Taichung, so far Taichung still maintains it’s top spot for the deadliest city/county in the country for pedestrians in terms of raw numbers. Top spot for both the current number of pedestrians deaths for 2025 (as of latest public release of data so far) and INCREASE in number of pedestrians deaths when compared to both 2024 and 2023 (for the same period of time).
[Img. Source: MOTC Safety Dashboard website]
Pedestrian on uncontrolled crossing hit and knocked to the ground by a scooter rider who doesn’t stop and flees the scene.
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80yr. old pedestrian hit by left turning driver in Kaohsiung sent to the hospital in serious condition. Another watermelon cutting driver. A pedestrian island would’ve saved the pedestrian. The pedestrian had both legs and her pelvis fractured.
The lizhang has suggested changing this intersection to have a dedicated left turn only phase due to the number of accidents here, the amount of traffic, and the high speed at which drivers turn at. There are already dedicated left turn lanes at both sides of this intersection but it’s a round green light so you can just go when you get the chance…which given how many people drive/ride here…
Pedestrian in Changhua hit by a right turning driver. Fortunately doesn’t seemed to be injured, but she seems pissed off…and rightfully so.
- More hook turn box incident resulting in multiple riders injured due to drivers making a left turn in front of oncoming through traffic. Two separate incidents at the exact same spot, just a couple weeks apart.
3 scooters in hook turn box are hit and 3 riders sent to the hospital as a driver makes a left turn as oncoming traffic has car going straight sending them both towards the hook turn box.
A couple weeks ago at the same spot. Multiple people hit in same type of incident. 6 people injured.
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