If it’s worse than Taichung, no thank you.
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Anything goes, even the scooters can ride unpunished on sidewalks, more and more delivery guys do it, and not just the last meters, they cut off whole city blocks, because you know, they’re delivery guys and it’s their right, or so they think.
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- How loud is it when I open the window at home, mainly because of how much motorized traffic moving at high speeds there is.
Unrelated, but travel to India sometime. Mindless honking of the car horn is the preferred method of “communication” between drivers, to the point where it’s become an involuntary reflex. I guarantee you will be shocked on your first ride from the airport to the hotel and might even suffer a headache.
Just as my Indian friends are used to the mindless honking, my Taiwanese friends have also gotten accustomed to street noises. Just deal with it for a month and your brain will be trained to ignore it. Stuff like this is probably a non-issue for the Taiwanese.
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I’ve had a few but those were usually because my eyes were glued to my phone lol.
While visiting Switzerland I was walking next to a road and hearby was a crosswalk for pedestrians. I was actually waiting for my wife near the crosswalk but did not want to cross the road. I noticed that each car approaching the crosswalk was stopping and looking at me. After a few cars I realized that they thought I wanted to cross the road so were stopping for me. I finally stood behind a tree so they would not see me.
In Taiwan at crosswalks I have been hit twice by mirrors of cars and motorcycles as they try to slip into the small space between me and the curb.
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Watch the news, or YouTube when bored. The blind hitting the blind. I had only ever seen 1 accident in 2 decades in my country of origin, now i have seen so many deaths, never mind accidents, i dont even bother recalling where and when anymore. When i go to a local eatery, I intentionally take the seat facing away from the tv, its just too depressing/annoying how dumb people are.
Taipei certainly does seem the best for things like having sidewalks, competent police (albeit dicks), cars that stop for people etc. I think the formula is quite simple. Places where police do their job, or at least draw a large % of their quota from traffic violations, are better than those that dont.
Regardless of india being worse, taiwan has a serious problem with spacial awareness and selflessness, this isnt really an unknown phenomena and for sure should be on the agenda for the education department to start teaching kids differently.
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As an amateur observer of how city blocks are connected together and numerous traffic intersections I have to agree.
Much thought was put into faster traffic flown . Almost no thought was put into anything else.
There’s a set of double traffic lights placed close together (maybe 30 ms between them on the road we are living on).
It’s a deadly combination because what actually happens is a significant proportion of drivers end up going through the first red light as they seem to think it’s OK as long as they stop at the second red light.
It couldnt be designed worse in terms of killing kids who innocently think the green man means it’s safe to cross now at that first set of lights .
And yes most fault lies with the drivers but the design is exacerbating the risk.
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There’s also another intersection where it’s almost impossible for the scooter drivers to turn left without driving in a straight line at the pedestrians trying to cross the road.
It’s just designed that way as the scooters try to avoid the cars coming at them from the other side so they hurriedly rush to immediately turn left as the light turns green…Right into the pedestrians who are rushing to cross the road AT THE SAME TIME !
Their management and understanding of the actual situation at these intersections is appalling and worse than some third world countries.
I think they completely ignore factoring human behaviour into their plans and designs. They construct them…Walk away…And wash their hands.
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This has been the first “skill” I learned when crossing roads without dedicated scooter “turn boxes”: watch for the ones rushing and cutting form the opposite left and the ones turning right from behind.
(Cars are more obvious to keep track of)
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Actually, I don’t agree here, and that’s a lot about what the videos from Not Just Bikes.
The infrastructure in place is at fault most of the times.
Unironically, as in most kinds of accidents and preventable deaths and even murders if you ask me, the legislation, police, infrastructure, and support (and by consequence, the people who have been in charge) should take most of the responsibility.
Really check this video from NotJustBikes about accidents to see what I mean:
People make mistakes all the time. Maybe we are too stressed, maybe the noise of the city prevents us from fully paying attention, maybe we are extremely tired because of overwork.
The infrastructure should be there to help us: mainly by taking you out of a driving wheel in these circumstances and into public transport or safe cycle lanes, or maybe by just physically preventing you from speeding up on roads.
I have driven quite a lot both in the Netherlands and Taiwan, and I swear that in the Netherlands it’s just much more difficult to distractedly speed up on the road, because as the video showcases the roads are designed to prevent that.
Here in Taiwan I have inadvertently passed 50 kph speed on a scooter in the middle of the city to my surprise too many times.
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Three point turn over a pedestrian crossing yesterday.
Day before that a scooter rode with the pedestrians over the crossing on the green man, bobbing and weaving to avoid oncoming pedestrians.
Earlier in the week saw a Uber eats scooter run a red at great speed, like a speed where if he came off, it would be touch and go.
That’s just some observations from the past week for you.
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In Taiwan they deliberately run the red lights without braking especially if they see two lights in a row. It’s accepted behaviour unfortunately because running a red light isn’t such a big deal here. So there is a specific behaviour of running red lights and light punishment issue for that. The infrastructure encourages it but the drivers are making a conscious decision to even speed up through the first light.
If you have familiarity with the driving schools and testing system here you can see their driving instruction is just awful.
Now if learned behaviour cannot be easily changed we can look back at infrastructure to force that change…Yes I agree. In Taiwan they tend to do this for red light breakers by placing a massively obvious traffic camera on the intersection.
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Just to make sure, you are saying this as an example of what I’m saying is right, right?
Like how probably this pedestrian crossing is not elevated, nor a continuous walkway, so the scooter drivers feel not only entitled to do that but also bothered by the pedestrians walking on their road. (basically things that they talk in the videos I shared in my original first post)
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I just passed my car driving test here in Taiwan a month ago… and yes. I agree here haha.
It’s really not that good of a test. I feel like too much is left to learn by the drivers once they get the license.
I mean, in Spain (where I got mine first), they would fail you for things like doing a left-turn in any other angle less than a 90 degrees, AND they would explain why is that such a dangerous thing to do. Or even fail you for turning your wheels left (and tilting your car) before being cleared and stared turning left.
Both things are not only OK do do here, but encouraged by the roads.
But again, in Spain mostly don’t have the kind of left-turning on 4-road intersections like we do here.
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Yes ‘cutting the corner’ here is also a very shitty behaviour that drivers do and I don’t think they receive proper instruction about that.
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It’s funny to me that a country that lives so close to each other has very little understanding of human behavior.
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Yes. This.
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Never, ever, visit the United States if you are worried about violent crime.
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Similar set up close by, that is, without the second set of traffic lights.
Rather, after a major crossing with traffic lights and long waits, there is 50 m away a second pedestrian crossing, without traffic lights. So drivers just go full tilt speeding through this 2nd pedestrian crossing, ignoring any pedestrians on it or cautiously waiting. Been close to accidents many times.
They are obviously in breach of the laws of pedestrian crossings, but also, not having a traffic light does not help.
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I don’t think having white painted pedestrian crossing lines at intersections is helpful. It makes it unclear what their meaning is elsewhere. In the U.K. you must stop at any zebra crossing if there are people crossing, which is why they aren’t used when there are traffic lights - the light tells you to stop.
But in Taiwan there are zebra crossing markings at intersections and you don’t have to stop if the light is green, even if people are waiting. So, if you don’t need to stop in those circumstances it takes away the easy to follow “always stop at a zebra crossing if people are waiting” rule.
I’m also not sold on the traffic light countdown. If there’s no one on the intersection and there are five seconds left to go, then why the hell not just go now? And are the time limits on the lights variable? It doesn’t seem so as I end up spending ridiculous amounts of time sat at red light when there is no one in the junction.