If the reports are solicited, that’s fine. If they’re largely ignored, even better. But don’t forget, that is also political in nature, which is a whole other, even more atrocious animal–what with American foreign policy being what it is and all. I know of no country that enjoys foreign countries or businesses telling them what to do. That’s only the privilege of citizenship.
The thing is, hardly anyone has come up with any ideas that 1. aren’t already being implemented or 2. don’t rely on technology that isn’t either too expensive right now or else too far into the future to be viable now.
Well ideas are cheap, talk is cheaper and implementation is neither
Sure phasing out 2 stroke scooters is an obvious one, n sure some bill was passed, n sure most are still 2 stroke. Same goes for driving lessons or traffic police eventually doing something useful. Even solar subsidies are an old Taipower story. Just more often than not it seems the governing body is way to scared of it’s electorate or just plain lazy or just not paying detailed enough attention.
…corruption is the biggest problem. When you see captured markets like energy and transport and fuel supply…you know the story.
Look into how Taipower works with it’s contracted power companies, run by ex Taipower managers.
Didn’t mention above cuz it seems to be less of a “problem”, but more of a life attitude
Why would one expect large companies to be “better” than small ones or ya government employee Lee to be different from average Joe Lee. E.g. night-markets are almost pure (albeit accepted) corruption and I don’t even wanna know what kinda revenue that biendan place downstairs reports…
Than again there was a thread about electric “gogoro (or so)” scooters -yeah sure the government should provide locations and charging stations, just to their specifications-
Just, aye, e.g. Japan is not much different in this regard; but oi it works ^^ (well, kinda)
change has to come from Mrs. Chen and Mrs. Zhang in apartment A, complaining how noise disturbs baby’s sleep, and Mr.Zhang returning from living abroad, and Mr. Zhou saying he’s had enough of scooters speeding down his lane, and so on and so on. Organically from the common people. Force govt and industry. Out with the old guard, and in with the new blood
What you reckon, 5%, 10%, 15% of scooter traffic is mother (and/or father) with baby or young child on scooter?
A government funded, one year campaign targeting billboards, movie theater previews, posters at the motor vehicle offices, etc. A bit of scare tactics, reminding folks that lung cancer is number 1 and 2 top cancer death. The amount of air pollution you get on scooter - on street level, in the danger zone, so to speak, waiting at traffic lights sucking up the fumes from all the scooters and cars around you, etc. No place for young lungs
“The report said that two-wheeled vehicles were the most dangerous types of transport, because 43.6 percent of road fatalities involved riders of bicycles, motorcycles or scooters.”
That’s because pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists can’t protect themselves from the force of being hit by larger vehicles. If we take your anti-scooter recommendation to its logical conclusion, we have to restrict or ban pedestrians and cyclists, too, because their mode of transportation is equally unsafe. Do you see the problem with your line of thinking? Two pedestrians bumping into each other will not hurt each other much, even though they’re not wearing helmets. Two cyclists hitting each other will not hurt each other much, partially because they’re wearing light helmets to protect their heads, but it will be more serious than two pedestrians. Two scooter riders hitting each other will cause more damage to each other than two pedestrians or two cyclists, but will be highly unlikely to result in major injuries or death. Two car drivers hitting each other will run the gambit from minor injuries to death. Now, replace all the previous scenarios with one car. A car can kill a pedestrian. A car can kill a cyclist. A car can kill a motorcyclist. The problem of road fatalities has never been about the danger of walking or the danger of cycling, and very seldom has it been about the danger of riding a scooter. The problem is about the human body’s inability to withstand the impact of being hit by a car. Go back to the 1970s and 1980s when Taiwan mainly used bicycles and motorcycles to commute, and there were very few cars. More space on the roads because of fewer space-hoarding cars and a higher percentage of vehicles that caused minimal damage to the human body in an impact made commuting safer. Road injuries and fatalities will always–always–increase by the number of vehicles on the roads. I know of no country that has ever had fewer injuries or fatalities by adding more vehicles. Would you, personally, rather be hit by a car or a scooter?
However, your comments on organic change and pollution are fine. Just be prepared for another nuclear power plant, that’s all I’m saying.
[quote=“BlownWideOpen”]SlowRain, you’re a tenacious fella I’ll give you that.
I agree with your statement “a car can kill a motorcyclist”. This is the most accurate thing we’ve heard from you in this debate.
My claws are sharp and ready, let’s go![/quote]
You’re the tenacious fella. Scooters are not the problem. Your hate of scooters is clouding your judgement. If you make them the problem without actually solving the problem (transport) then you will end up with a far worse problem. More cars is 0% of any solution. The last thing that Taiwan needs is more gridlock. Right now things are mostly manageable but some areas just shut down from congestion at certain times. This is far better than most of the very densely populated areas in the world. It’s far worse to have streets and freeways that simply don’t move when compared to the chaos caused by scooters.
There do need to be some improvements on the scooter side though. More enforcement of traffic rules (get off the damn sidewalk) and if you haven’t done your emissions test or paid your tax/reg then your scooter is impounded.
US Aid programs directed Taiwan’s post war development for decades. Same with Japan and much of Europe. NAFTA enables companies to sue over environmental and labor regulations that affect let’s say American businesses in Mexico. TPP is going to do the same.
FIFA and the Olympic community make all manner of demands on host countries. China makes demands on countries that it visits that they suppress local protests. The US Chamber of Commerce made statements in 2012 to affect the election.
This happens everywhere and all the time. You may not like it but it is the price you pay for inviting foreign business and workers into your country. It’s the price you pay for having an open society that’s part of the earth.
Taiwan is signatory to a rash of UN Human Rights bills so it is very much all of our rights to express whatever we want. You can dislike it, but law and custom are not on your side.
SlowRain and Abacus, still fixating on “more cars” and missing all the good stuff in this debate. Complex issues require more intellectual vigor. Doesnt look like we’re going to get much of that in this thread
Make bikelanes everywhere. This will give up space from cars and scooters making it more inconvenient to drive. People are creatures of convenience and after a while will stop driving.
Charge people loads for parking on sidewalks. Ethnic Chinese are cheap cheap people.
You have directly said that more cars is part of your solution. That isn’t selective quoting or interpretation. it’s direct quoting.
You also have a huge bias against scooters as an option. You aren’t getting rid of them w/o HUGE infrastructure improvements. I’m talking about multi-decade long improvements costing billions/yr. That’s the way it is. If all you have for improvements is more walking, biking, better buses and more cars then you aren’t actually offering anything other than hating on scooters (which I don’t really like). Walking and biking is a shit option for many in this weather although I do it because I enjoy walking and biking. Buses have improved a lot but they are still SLOW. More cars is the shittiest option that anybody has recommended in this thread.
You have directly said that more cars is part of your solution. That isn’t selective quoting or interpretation. it’s direct quoting.
You also have a huge bias against scooters as an option. You aren’t getting rid of them w/o HUGE infrastructure improvements. I’m talking about multi-decade long improvements costing billions/yr. That’s the way it is. If all you have for improvements is more walking, biking, better buses and more cars then you aren’t actually offering anything other than hating on scooters (which I don’t really like). Walking and biking is a shit option for many in this weather although I do it because I enjoy walking and biking. Buses have improved a lot but they are still SLOW. More cars is the shittiest option that anybody has recommended in this thread.[/quote]
Biking is fine though, loads of people bike on Ubike in Taipei. For small trips it is fine. Then you have MRT. Buses are fine if there are more of them. How much more infrastructure do you need, Taipei has great public transport
You have directly said that more cars is part of your solution. That isn’t selective quoting or interpretation. it’s direct quoting.
You also have a huge bias against scooters as an option. You aren’t getting rid of them w/o HUGE infrastructure improvements. I’m talking about multi-decade long improvements costing billions/yr. That’s the way it is. If all you have for improvements is more walking, biking, better buses and more cars then you aren’t actually offering anything other than hating on scooters (which I don’t really like). Walking and biking is a shit option for many in this weather although I do it because I enjoy walking and biking. Buses have improved a lot but they are still SLOW. More cars is the shittiest option that anybody has recommended in this thread.[/quote]
Biking is fine though, loads of people bike on Ubike in Taipei. For small trips it is fine. Then you have MRT. Buses are fine if there are more of them. How much more infrastructure do you need, Taipei has great public transport[/quote]
And it’s taken 20 years and you are finally starting to shift from scooters to mass transit in Taipei. And there are probably 15+M people that are nowhere near Taipei. that’s the infrastructure that I’m talking about. Taipei is great but the country is significantly larger than Taipei.
Off to a fairly slow start here today. SlowRain, Abacus, and now OrangeOrganics continuing with the “more cars” theme of the debate. My claws are sharp and I’m waiting for my moment to pounce. SlowRain meanwhile licking his wounds from yesterday’s beating, but has jumped back into the fight. Good on him! Abacus now attempting to play the “hating, bias towards scooters” move…let’s see if he has any luck with this tactic
You have directly said that more cars is part of your solution. That isn’t selective quoting or interpretation. it’s direct quoting.
You also have a huge bias against scooters as an option. You aren’t getting rid of them w/o HUGE infrastructure improvements. I’m talking about multi-decade long improvements costing billions/yr. That’s the way it is. If all you have for improvements is more walking, biking, better buses and more cars then you aren’t actually offering anything other than hating on scooters (which I don’t really like). Walking and biking is a shit option for many in this weather although I do it because I enjoy walking and biking. Buses have improved a lot but they are still SLOW. More cars is the shittiest option that anybody has recommended in this thread.[/quote]
Biking is fine though, loads of people bike on Ubike in Taipei. For small trips it is fine. Then you have MRT. Buses are fine if there are more of them. How much more infrastructure do you need, Taipei has great public transport[/quote]
And it’s taken 20 years and you are finally starting to shift from scooters to mass transit in Taipei. And there are probably 15+M people that are nowhere near Taipei. that’s the infrastructure that I’m talking about. Taipei is great but the country is significantly larger than Taipei.[/quote]
