So many traffic cops in Taipei “directing” traffic at intersections. I’m curious: are they really just making sure people don’t run the light or block the box, or are they actually directing traffic based on current conditions, potentially in opposition to what the light shows?
I’ve seen as many as three cops at one intersection, blowing their whistles like crazy and waving their batons, but I’ve never seen them actually direct traffic contrary to the light itself.
Maybe have a look in this thread:
Taiwanese drive poorly.
The government has lots of make work programs.
There are far too many police and they need something to do.
Thye tend not to stop actual crime, but need to show the public they are busy doing their jobs.
They serve as witness to he inevitable onslaught of accidents.
Some are being punished.
According to Wikipedia, Taiwan only has a bit more police per capita than the US – 273 vs 239 per 100k
In my experience, I’d estimate I see about 9 out of 10 traffic cops being ineffectual, allowing gridlock and whatever other problems they’re supposedly there to prevent. When I see the 1 out of 10 actually helping control/ease the flow of traffic I applaud them in my heart.
Could the inhalation of high concentration exhaust fumes be affecting their behaviour do you think?
Wow. You would think they would then be able to actually enforce traffic laws, but no.
On the the other hand, at least they avoid shooting up the populace.
I don’t know if this is related to your question , but in the following article says that car/scooter accidents have increased in the morning because of hangover , so maybe that is why you can see many traffic cops at intersections
如果最近有在路口發現早上臨檢變多，是不是有多了一些疑惑，因為通常酒駕臨檢都設立在半夜時段，原來是酒駕新制上路後，早上6點到中午12點的肇事比例上升，推因是宿醉所造成的不良駕駛，特別這段時間是年終尾牙聚餐的高峰時間，才會在提升白天臨檢，以下為中央社全文報導：
交通部今天表示，酒駕新制上路後，雖然取締與移送法辦件數降低，但早上6時到中午12時的酒駕肇事比例由11.8%逐漸上升至14.6%，顯示不少民眾輕忽宿醉的危險性。
sources:
https://www.cool3c.com/article/150915
https://www.motc.gov.tw/ch/pda/news.jsp?link=ap/news_view.jsp&dataserno=202001020001
Take that number based on population then work it into land area. Its a different kind of map.
I used to think that too. But then i thought about their persepctive. They literally see millions of traffic violations daily. Unless they are being pushed for their pre CNY quotas, a day without blood is already a good day. It seems bad, but i can kind of see their perspective. If i saw ground human meat on the road all the time, i would lose some optimism as well. Albiet wrong, its sort of understandable. In this instance we the people hold the entirety of the blame. They should absolutely do more, as should eery citizen. Making testing.harder would be a cheap, easy and useful step in.the meantime. As well as training students in.schools from a young age. But if we go down that road i would argue the police should be cracking down more on other crime like corruption, organized gangs, corporate crime etc. Thats far worse than traffic issues by many orders of magnitude!