Left-turn on green illegal?

Life Cars & Motorcycles
1

It is with deep regret, that I reveal my perfect driving record, maintained for over 13 years aka my entire driving life, is over. Here’s my rant from my blog on http://trafficlawsareoptional.blogspot.com/.

Sulavaca evened warned me this would happen, thought I did not think so soon.

He’s Gotta Ticket to Ride
I picked up my car on Saturday and successfully made the trip back to Hsinchu without issue.

It feels really good to have a car now. Taxi surfing was starting to get old.

A couple of nights, I have driven around to explore and get more familiar with the streets. A good tactic, I thought, until tonight.

You see, I made a left turn as I normally would, but I did not wait for the green turn arrow. I even looked to see if there was a green turn arrow. Since I could not tell, and there was a hyper taxi driver behind me, I decided to go, as the road was clear.

Two cops hiding around the corner smiled brightly, admiring their new catch, and directed me to pull into their nook. I obliged and rolled down the window, flashing my biggest “sorry I don’t know the rules” grin. No dice.

One cop asked for my license and asked if I spoke Chinese. I told him a little. I understood him tell me I must wait for a green turn signal and that he was giving me a NT$600 ticket. I just kept smiling, hoping it would end soon. I had to sign my Chinese name and we said bye bye.

It was nice to get some Chinese practice, but I was a little disappointed.

You see, this was my first traffic ticket in my entire driving life. The streak has come to an end. The sun will still come up tomorrow, but things may never be the same…

2

Mmm. Seems to be the latest ‘gotcha’ move out there. My wife got pulled over for the same thing last week. She’s probably more skilled with the whole ‘sai nai’ thing than you are, and she got off with a warning. But, it does seem that the last blitz on right-turn-on-red has cautioned drivers enough to cause a drop in revenue, so now they are on this thing of ‘no-left-turn-until-green-arrow’.

Makes no sense of course. When traffic is busier, there is no cop there to stop those wankers from doing the old ‘left-turn-in-face-of-oncoming-traffic’ trick. Seems that in Taiwan, a traffic offense is only a traffic offense when it doesn’t put anyone’s life in danger.

But as we say, if it made sense, they wouldn’t do it that way.

3

This rule makes no sense at all considering there is no signposted left turn signal. Without being signposted to wait for a left turn signal then I would argue being ticketed is unjust.

Having said that in such a case I would also refuse to give them my driving license or name. Let them guess. From my experience they just let you go in the end.

4

They cant ticket you for that, its ok to turn on green!.
Another cop taking advantage of a foreigner :fume:

5

[quote=“smellybumlove”]They cant ticket you for that, its ok to turn on green!.
Another cop taking advantage of a foreigner :fume:[/quote]
In my wife’s case (She’s Taiwanese btw) there was a red light and straight-ahead green filter arrow lit when she turned. I’d like to hear from the OP about what lights were lit when he turned.
I’ve always thought it was okay to make a left in that situation as long as there isn’t oncoming traffic. The cops told her she has to wait for the green left-turn filter arrow. Look forward to even longer delays on your journeys until the cops move onto the next scam.

6

It’s ok to turn left if you let some other wanker turn first and no prairie-dog cops pop out of their holes to nab 'im.

Whatever the cops don’t see is legal, I think. Isn’t that how it works here?

7

Was there a green left turn arrow? IF so you MUST wait for that arrow before proceeding to make your left turn. Same rule here in California. And if there wasnt a green arrow you can still be sited (here in CAlif) for not yielding to oncoming traffic as they have right of way. I believe it would be the same in Taiwan.

8

Yeah, they’re enforcing this in Donghu now, too. Stupid.

9

I agree with Tommy.

However, drivers here in Hsinchu and further down south (I guess) don’t yield for nothing, least of all oncoming traffic. The right of way? No ways. It’s a free-for-all drunken brawl.

It has improved somewhat over the years though.

10

If I’m not mistaken, in California, if you have to wait for a green arrow to turn left, there should also be a red arrow. Is that not correct? Otherwise, if you come up on an unfamiliar intersection and there isn’t any left-turn arrow of any color, how are you supposed to know?

1 Like
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[quote=“redwagon”]I’ve always thought it was okay to make a left in that situation as long as there isn’t oncoming traffic.[/quote] yeah me too…

[quote=“sulavaca”]This rule makes no sense at all considering there is no signposted left turn signal[/quote] from the number of lights …if 3 then u can go left anytime, if 4 then there is left arrow signal and 5 then there’s left and right arrow… :loco: :smiley:

12

That’s 'effin ridiculous… At the bridge intersection near my house there is often no oncoming traffic, as in not one lonely soul, and you can clearly see down the straight wide, flat riverside road about 1km or more… There are however often 10+ vehicles waiting to turn left to cross the bridge off the large straight empty road… So the law dictates that all 10+ vehicles should sit motionless for 99 seconds watching their lives count down to oblivion before all trying to rush (all except the guy at the fornt of course, he has the power) across during the 10 second left turn window, inevitably leaving the last 2 or 3 cars to miss the light and wait through another 99 second cycle of nothing but the sound of wasted gasoline burning?..

OTOH I can see how this falls into the same category as right on a red, since both require a judgement call on the part of the driver, and that judgement in turn requires performing a logical and rational evaluation of the circumstances, leaving the average Taiwan mouthbreather driver as utterly unequipped to carry out such a task as say, a doctoral critique of the finer points of Kant’s existential refutation of ontological argument in the original high German… To compound this, most left turn lights are indescernable from the the countless broken traffic lights that litter intersections island wide and many more are also only active during peak hours, condemning the lawful driver to sit waiting for Godot or rush hour, whichever comes first…

We should not bow down to this idiocy, peaceful resistance through civil disobedience is the only answer, if pulled I will claim my left turn is just and righteous on account of the special circumstances of having a functioning brain, and I encourage you all to do the same…

13

The answer to this is what they have here in the Bay Area. Smart traffic lights , with sensors that know if a car is there or not and operate the lights accordingly. It works.

14

In California you can still turn left if there’s no oncoming traffic. A green light without an arrow acts like an ordinary green light: you can turn left when safe, but the oncoming traffic has a green light too and have right of way. An arrow means you can turn left without worrying about oncoming traffic as they have a red light.

To specifically forbid left turns, many jurisdictions use [color=#FF0000]red[/color] left-turn arrows. Perhaps they should implement those here. Otherwise saying you can’t turn left on green is completely nonsensical.

15

I agree with Tommy.

However, drivers here in Hsinchu and further down south (I guess) don’t yield for nothing, least of all oncoming traffic. The right of way? No ways. It’s a free-for-all drunken brawl.

It has improved somewhat over the years though.
[/quote]

The problem is, is that there is no indication whether or not there is a left green arrow until after the arrow has been illuminated. Without sign posting, the rule cannot logically stand. I would therefore ignore the police and provide no I.D.

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[quote=“redwagon”]In my wife’s case (She’s Taiwanese btw) there was a red light and straight-ahead green filter arrow lit when she turned[/quote]To me the red light says stop (weird, I know), except for the direction given by any green arrows.

Unlit lights cannot be seen and should be assumed to not exist.

17

[quote=“Chris”]
To specifically forbid left turns, many jurisdictions use [color=#FF0000]red[/color] left-turn arrows. Perhaps they should implement those here. Otherwise saying you can’t turn left on green is completely nonsensical.[/quote]
But it is profitable, which is more to the point. Let’s face it, the cops go after violations which are easy to prosecute and bring in decent income. Note that, with the exception of DUI, they basically never hand out tickets for offenses which might result in someone losing their license, like reckless driving etc. Too many people would contest those tickets and make the cops show up in court, which reduces their profitability. DUI is an easy one to prosecute as they have hard evidence in that case, a positive result at the breath test and a blood test result to back that up. All the campaigns launched, with the exception of DUI stop, are on offenses for which the driver can accept the ticket on the spot and pay the fine without a court appearance. Coincidence?

I think this is exactly why a great number of drivers, maybe even the majority, have the attitude of obeying the law only when the cops are there in sight, or where they know there’s a camera, or where the cops are known to lurk. They feel that most laws are written only to allow the cops to grab their cash when they need it, and have nothing at all to do with actually improving road safety.

Be careful out there folks, it’s wallet-lightening season again.

18

Just wait 2 months. All will be back to normal or the next campaign started.

What will be the next one? Right on red? Odds anyone?

19

[quote=“redwagon”][quote=“Chris”]
To specifically forbid left turns, many jurisdictions use [color=#FF0000]red[/color] left-turn arrows. Perhaps they should implement those here. Otherwise saying you can’t turn left on green is completely nonsensical.[/quote]
But it is profitable, which is more to the point. Let’s face it, the cops go after violations which are easy to prosecute and bring in decent income. Note that, with the exception of DUI, they basically never hand out tickets for offenses which might result in someone losing their license, like reckless driving etc. Too many people would contest those tickets and make the cops show up in court, which reduces their profitability. DUI is an easy one to prosecute as they have hard evidence in that case, a positive result at the breath test and a blood test result to back that up. All the campaigns launched, with the exception of DUI stop, are on offenses for which the driver can accept the ticket on the spot and pay the fine without a court appearance. Coincidence?

I think this is exactly why a great number of drivers, maybe even the majority, have the attitude of obeying the law only when the cops are there in sight, or where they know there’s a camera, or where the cops are known to lurk. They feel that most laws are written only to allow the cops to grab their cash when they need it, and have nothing at all to do with actually improving road safety.

Be careful out there folks, it’s wallet-lightening season again.[/quote]

Having said that a number of years ago when I produced Red Light Green Light I discovered that over two thirds of cases of DUI were unsuccessfully prosecuted at that time if a defendant went to court.

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[quote=“Elegua”]Just wait 2 months. All will be back to normal or the next campaign started.

What will be the next one? Right on red? Odds anyone?[/quote]

Front tire crossing white ‘stop’ line at a red light. They got me for that once, the bastards! In TAIWAN, fer Chrissakes!!!