I recently started driving (woo!) and I’ve come across something confusing, well a few things, but one thing in particular that I want to find out about.
At some intersections you come to, the lights will show a green arrow pointing the way that it’s OK to go. So, for example at the end of my street, there is a set of lights that has a green arrow to go left and one to go straight on. The “turn left” green arrow is only on for about 20 seconds before it turns off to let the traffic from the other direction pass. Now, here’s my question: in the absence of a green “turn left” arrow, is there some kind of “go if clear” implication? Thing is, I routinely see cars pulling out the the middle of the intersection and…well… going if clear. I’ve seen police cars/ scooters doing it too. I’ve also seen scooters get smashed when doing it. I was just hoping to find out exactly what one is supposed to do or what is “law” for this kind of situation. I’ve asked a few Taiwanese, but usually the response is “if it’s clear, then go for it” but none seem to know what the “law” is exactly.
Obviously, you can take the “when in Rome” approach, but I’d like to know. I’d also like to not get smashed.
no! If there is a green arrow, you can only turn left when it is on. You are not allowed to turn when it is off. Off course scooters and some crazy car drivers still do it. I guess you skipped that part in the theoretical test?
Ha ha, thanks for the reply. I assumed that was the case.
I sat the theory test like two years ago so some of it is a bit on the rusty side. Even if I remembered it, seeing cops do it as a matter of course does make you think twice.
You haven’t been in Taiwan long, have you? The law is whatever people decide is the law.
In theory, traffic lights work exactly as in normal countries. If there is a red with a green filter arrow, you can turn in the direction of the arrow. If you see (solid) green, you can turn but give way to oncoming traffic. Otherwise you stop. There are two complications:
The people who designed the roads and the traffic signs are Taiwanese. They have never taken a driving test and cannot drive. So, for example, you will often see lights with a multiple-green-arrow configuration with arrows illuminated without an accompanying red. This is non-standard, in the UK at least, because it is ambiguous (as your Taiwanese friends point out). My understanding is, if you know (from experience) that it’s a three-way arrow which shows single arrows unaccompanied by red, and your arrow is not illuminated, you should stop. In other words, you should act as if there is a red there, because there should be, but the traffic planners forgot to install it. This will create a queue of honking idiots behind you who think green (regardless of the direction) means “go”, or who are in the wrong lane. Fuck’em. They’re wrong. The reason they’re wrong is that there is (or might be) oncoming traffic with right of way. If they want to snake around you, let them.
As an implicit admission that nobody knows how to turn left and doesn’t care to learn, scooters have to perform a bizarre wait-on-the-right manoeuvre wherever you see a blue circular sign (or a likely-looking box kittycorner). The police love to catch scooters who simply follow the green filter arrow (how dare they!), which is only for cars. If you’re driving a scooter, make sure to do this. Or at least watch out for policemen lounging on the opposite corner.
Cops mostly have no idea what the law is and are not paid to uphold it. Their job is to simply be policemen, so that the country can say that it has a police force. It’s the political equivalent of those cardboard cutout buildings (all frontage, nothing behind) that were used for low-budget wild-west movies.
Coming off smaller roads that don’t require scooters to stop on the right when they want to turn left it’s just a green light with some people wanting to turn and others going straight. In this case, i show my signal and turn left in front of oncoming traffic that wants to go straight, as do most others. As the first wave of scooters dart ahead of oncoming traffic that is coming straight at them, the opposing cars and scooters going straight make their way through the ones cutting in front of them, some more forcefully than others. Some of the stragglers turning left will have to wait for those facing them going straight through, come hell or high water, to pass by before they dart ahead of the second wave of drivers coming straight through :loco: