Attention Taiwan authorities. In order to prevent road deaths and improve safety, you need to create a proper driver education system similar to the United States. Once the educational system has been implemented, there needs to be 100% police enforcement with heavy fines for violations culminating in license revocation for repeat offenders. Guanxi should have no bearing or exceptions to the regulations. Yeah, whatever…change Chinese culture and attitudes…probably won’t work unless we do it a Singapore style.
Here is the Washington State Department of Licensing Washington Driver Guide in Chinese. Copy it, implement it for Taiwan!!
I’m sure that part of the issue is education, but when I took the scooter written test it seemed like Taiwan already has some pretty reasonable laws (which anyone who passes the test must know and be educated about).
I think the bigger issue is the complete non-enforcement of any of the laws except the weekend a month where they pick a random law and write tickets just for that. If the police started cracking down hard on improper driving (waiting for pedestrians in cross walks, not running red lights, stopping random f*ing U-Turns in the middle of busy roads, actually towing red-line parkers, fining scooters who drive down the wrong side of the road, stopping all of this side-walk scooter driving, not letting little kids just stand in the footspace, etc, etc, etc) Taiwan could easily turn their traffic issues around.
Increasing the fines would probably help quite a bit too (I think the last [and only] speeding ticket I got in the U.S. was >$200)
To be fair, traffic accident deaths in Taiwan have fallen by about 50% in the past few years and I’ve noticed a definite improvement in driver behaviour. Skipping red lights, for example, is no longer par for the course - when I first arrived, you could stand at any given intersection and see at least one scooter blast through on every red-light change. Not anymore. Perhaps the people who did that are all dead
The official road death rate in Taiwan is about 57 per million, which is higher than (for example) the UK, at 27 per million, but that could be explained by the much, much higher rate of scooter use - and scooters are just inherently dangerous.
Also worth pointing out that US drivers are not considered particularly skilled in the grand scheme of things. The death rate in Washington State is 72 per million, and higher in several other States. This is probably related to the fact that Americans drive a lot more than most other nationalities, though.
Today near DaPingLin a semi-autonomous car caused a big accident and another car ran over a scooter driver.
In Taoyuan a car went up on the sidewalk and smashed the brains out of someone. Not sure exactly when. Probably drunk because my friend went through three police checkpoints on one short trip last night.
Didn’t they just had a big enforcement drive not too long back? Didn’t seem to make a difference at all.
I do notice in the US people drive slightly better than Taiwanese but they drive a LOT faster, which means more death because there’s less time to stop, higher speed means higher energy accidents, etc. I’ve seen some really aggressive and dangerous driving in the US, at higher speed too.
In almost every industry and section of the governmnet, there are many laws. Sometimes im shocked at how many there actually are! As you say, it is a cultural problem, not a legal one.
The laws are there. We are at the point of no return, and might consider removing and/or editing laws, rather than adding new ones. it is the culture that must start changing. The easiest route to likely via education. Starting from kindergarten on road safety. Takes a generation to change, so at the very bare minimum start teaching kids the second they enter a school. Traffic laws are government controlled, like schools, so is a very logical step rather than blaming parents…that often cannot drive well and lack the logic to teach their kids.
I always remember growing up they would take kindergarten kids and.grade 1 (cause grade 1 is mandatory, K is optional) to a driving center course. It was designed.like a small town. Think mini golf x road test hybrid. The cars were pedal style and you had to learn basic sense like .sidewalks, bikes, pedestrians, turn signals, lights, spacial distancing etc.
I tried to open such a thing many years ago here, but was shut down right quick for being foreign. It is absolutely needed in the education system. And every year, part of the curiculum. Their physics profits have no use if they get killed by the moron hat thought crosswalk lines are vertical so can be passed theough, in contrast to the horizontal suggestions at most intersections.
If it was anything like when I got my license, it won’t help. I memorized just enough to pass the test. Once I passed I never drove like that again. It’s enforcement of the worst violators that they need and not selective when we feel like picking some random thing to enforce that will change the situation. (And I don’t mean automated enforcement)
It’s just terrible how unsafe it is to cross a road at a pedestrian crossing in Taiwan in many cities and busy junctions. As a parent it makes my blood boil.
There’s simply no comparison with the chaos in Taiwan’s cities and towns and in fact there are many courteous drivers in the US whereas in Taiwan they are as rare as hens teeth .
They pretty much give anyone a DL in the US. I rather drive in Taiwan. Too many low skill low confidence teen girls driving around texting and too many testosterone pumped high risk teen boys racing around.
Nothing scares me like low confidence and low skill drivers though.
No way bro! I’ve been hit by careless drivers in Taiwan three times in the past 20 years. None of the drivers had licenses, cars weren’t registered and none were insured. The real kicker is that the police didn’t give a toss and were only concerned with how much money I was willing to accept from the at fault drivers! In the US, they would be arrested!
Driving in the US is a much more relaxing and safer alternative.
I never had an issues in Taiwan. Only in the US with low skill drivers and low confidence drivers that panic and do something stupid. I’m used to the defensive driving needed in Taiwan and can anticipate others. I can’t anticipate stupid drivers and people who panic and drive irrationally.