Just my observation, but what do others think? After driving the Motorway (NJ Turnpike as USA people call it) in New Jersey from New York , I saw truck on it’s side, a few highway bully and and auto crash, feel on the tollways in Taiwan seem well better with slower speeds and fewer road rage and crashes. In Taiwan I seldom see people driving above 110 (I did not say none but a few), in the States many people going 130 or more. I always though Taiwan was bad after driving in Japan before and in NZ for many years but after a month in States it does not seem as safe as I thought on the motorways. City Streets a bit different, New York City is easier to drive than in Taipei with less scooters and more parking (but I paid a lot more) and much higher tolls (but less than Japan). This is my observation driving in Southern Taiwan (Taipei is maybe different) and New York/NJ/PA areas and searching auto death rates which for USA/Taiwan are not too much different (Japan is very low/safe).
I think this should probably not be under “Where Can I Find…?” ha ha
Thanks, I moved it
I find driving on the freeway in Taiwan not too bad. Compared to the Autobahn in Germany for example, it’s much more relaxed because of the lower speeds and less trucks in general. Occasionally you have idiots slaloming through traffic switching lanes at random, and you get a lack of understanding about keeping a safe distance between vehicles, and you have those ass clowns who won’t let you into their lane no matter what, but that’s about it.
I give Taiwan’s freeway experience a B- on the international stage, but then I have not driven in that many countries. So what do I know… 
In the US people drive much faster and then there’s idiots driving 55mph on a 35mph road. That and people often have bigger vehicles meaning more damage. Also I have noticed at least on the streets in the US people seems to have stopped yielding when they are supposed to.
Two issues I see are what seems a non existent control of truck safety and their loads. Second issue is frequent passing via the slow lane since cars are driving way under the speed limit on the outside lanes (fault to be found on both parties)
Overall I agree. Highways work quite well here.
Does motorway way mean freeway/highway? I do agree, the freeways here arent that bad. Them being mostly raised helps a lot! However, every other roadway i cannot agree.
I love how when it says 110. It means 110 kmh.
Not this we-build-highways-safe-for-130-but-force-you-to-drive-100 thing Ontario does.
More roads, high wages, higher costs i bet its just that simple. thats why canadian roads tend t o look like shyte compared to here.
Do people really drive at 100 in Ontario? Canada seems very safe, much lower than the USA.
This. You want to drive 100-120 don’t think about getting into the left lane. That’s for the people who want to go 120+. But inevitably there’s always some dumbass, usually a van or blue truck blocking the lane and you’re forced to slalom through the slow lanes.
The most dangerous thing on the freeway here is the lack of distance and warnings you get when they block off part of the road for work. You are doing 120 around the turn and suddenly there are orange cones blocking off the lane in less than 50 meters. It’s super whack. That would be a multimillion dollar lawsuit in most western countries.
No. You get a dangerous mix of people driving from 90-130.
It’s low, IMO because much of the country is sparse with little traffic.
Taiwan motorways have a massive amount of trucks on them which is pretty annoying.
Also the entrances and exits can be packed together which causes problems. And they have a major issue with folks trying to skip the queues for highway exits.
And overtaking on the right is a common issue although I do it myself sometimes too.
Main issue is really the very heavy concentration of heavy trucks , light trucks , cars and buses. Buses haven’t been so bad since the Chinese tourists stopped coming. Management of trucks is poor on the motorway you’ll see many with registration numbers obscured or altered or deliberately covered in mud. Many trucks in poor condition . And small trucks routinely carrying loads they shouldn’t be carrying. Basically the highway police are useless.
Taiwan motorways also utilise the emergency lane a lot for heavy traffic periods now, good for traffic flow, very bad if your car breaks down (UK does it as well with similar issues ).
As for driving behaviour, overall it’s far better than on national roads or city streets, because most of the drivers know you can’t mess around on the highway at high speed and expect to get away with it.
Taiwan’s road traffic fatality rate is very high but the vast majority of them are scooter accidents. Highway accidents are very few.
I think everywhere except maybe Japan (some motorways are one lane each way with mostly cars). The New Jersey Turnpike (Motorway) has separate heavy goods lanes, for trucks and the bus and there are a lot of them even late night.
I’ve taken extended vacations where I drive all over Taiwan for 30 days or more. Highways, city, country. I don’t find it to be any worse than the U.S. (but I keep my mouth shut around here, because everyone on Forumosa complains about how dangerous and awful Taiwan traffic is.)
(Perhaps this means that driving in the U.S. is also dangerous and awful, therefore I don’t notice any difference?)
Well you never see scooters on highways, they aren’t allowed on highways.
But seriously I’d not want to drive in Taiwan simply because the scooters will fill any space you have around you and so you have to be constantly alert to make sure you don’t end up squishing one.
Smaller roads yes, big roads have scooter lanes so that is nice like Minzu road or Boai/Chung Shan Road to the airport/Main Kaoshuing and High Speed rail.
This is true, after driving in many nations you can see where is more safe and not.
Germany seems really safe, I mean drivers there yields religiously.
But it’s also insanely difficult to get a drivers license in Germany… a minimum of 2000 euros just to get the license alone, not to mention the car itself.