Taiwan is in serious need of traffic light reform. I know obviously we need traffic lights but to sit at a traffic light for 3 full minutes, such as in Taipei, CREATES a helluva lot more traffic than it alleviates. They feel the need to put a traffic light everywhere, even where there are no cross-streets or on country roads. Case in point: I live on the outskirts of Hsinchu, in Pao shan township, near the Science Park. The particular road near my apartment has little traffic, at least not to warrant a light. Suddenly one day recently they put up a light in the middle of the road. There is no cross-street merging or intersection there. Just a light in the middle of the road. Now, there IS traffic piling up where there wasn’t ppreviously. The Taiwanese should take note of a few American traffic light rules by allowing motorists to turn right at a red light as long as no traffic is coming or allow motorists to turn left on a green light, even if there isn;t a protected arrow, AS LONG AS there’s no oncoming traffic. No, you don;t have the right-of-way in both instances but unless otherwise posted, it is legal and you won;t get a ticket just for doing it. It alleviates some of the stopped traffic. OK, I got that off my chest…in with the good air, out with the bad air…
couldn’t agree more. Where I live in taipei there are back streets that would be ok with the flashing orange or red lights but noooooooo they have to go and put full blown traffic lights. Result nobody moves!! Trouble is there is no joined up thinking anywhere on the island.
As long as there is no traffic coming.
Yup that would be the problem. Freedom. Can’t do it.
Jesus, Dave, you’re asking that Taiwanese drivers be given leeway to exercise prudent judgment and responsibility! You seriously think that would be a wise move? 
sorry but that might only be possible in a country with max 3 ~6 bikes on a traffic light, but in Taiwan if u let them do it u will have to wait forever… and even worst in the mornings going to work, there are at least 30 ~ 50 bikes in every traffic light from my home to my office…
no need to apologize. I could go into specifics but who would care? There are many examples of extraordinarily band planning in terms of where to place these lights, they have them where they don’t need them and don’t have them where some would be useful and all because roundabouts were considered to difficult to use!!
Scooters, motorcycles, and cars pull out from side streets without looking to see if there is traffic. Some will even look at you straight in the eye and then pull out right in front of you! Right on red? That non-written law has been in effect here for a very long time especially for scooters and motorcycles. Making it a written legal law would just take away from the police’s monthly ticket quota and totally *uck up traffic. You see, instead of maybe 10 scooters making a right on red, you’ll have about 50 and instead of keeping to the right side of the road, they will just simply occupy all lanes.
The problem has never been with traffic lights or laws or anything else BUT rider/driver mentality and attitude.
If you live in a small town or country side, lights such as this one are only a suggestion. Carry on.
Really? They actually look? Generally I see the scooters just come flying out of side streets without even looking. I guess they assume that since they’re in the far right lane they’ll be safe, but what if another scooter was coming? Or a car was trying to park?
Really, really, really stupid people. I was shocked when I first observed this suicidal habit; apparently some people here simply have no survival instincts.
It’s not about survival instincts; it’s about a lack of proper (driving) training. Just look at the so-called driving schools here that provide nothing more than training people how to pass the driving test. People drive in an enclosed area, with no other traffic in sight or distractions of any kind. The trainees are not taught to think cause - effect, no attention is paid to the most basic of driving ettiquette, and traffic rules are memorised like a poem with the sole purpose of passing the written exam.
No wonder the majority of drivers here are quite clueless (in my eyes).
Obviously the driver training is pretty atrocious here, but do you really need to be trained to look before you dart into a busy road? Do people need to take a class in how to cross the street? (Hmmm… scratch that, some people here clearly do…)
Common sense is enough to know that you enter a busy street carefully.
Sometimes it ain’t common sense until someone tells you…
They drive the way they walk. You need to go from A to B so you go. When you walk you try to avoid bumping into people who walk in front of you. I guess that is what they expect you to do when driving or riding, too.
You know, watching people trying o get on the bus every morning is like watching my kids swarm me when I have a piece of candy, or when I call out line-up to go t the play area. BUt you just got to train them and they can do it orderly.
But I am not going to say too much here as I have had shit put on me before for complaining in this forum about how they drive. Seemed like there were some who wanted to preserve their freedom to drive like idiots…
Might want to read more carefully… 
Happens too often. Who else thinks the Taiwanese fucktards do this on purpose to piss you off?
A friend of mine ran into one that pulled out from an alley and the called the cops. He took the blame for it. Apparently the law is that those on larger roads have to yield to those coming out of smaller streets, if there’s no stop sign or traffic light.
Yep. Only on Planet Taiwan…
so if i’m driving along a main road, and some turkey shoots out of a side street to my right on a collision course with me, i am NOT allowed to put my foot on his handlebars and steer him into the back of the next parked car? damn.
Wow, long time no see, talk, hear…
I would have just pulled out the driver’s handbook and thrown it at the cops. They assume that no one knows the traffic laws (most actually don’t). I got pulled over by a cop for having a loud muffler (modded Impreza). I knew that I was well within the legal limit so I dared him to give me a ticket knowing full well that by law, he could only write me a ticket if he had a EPA engineer measure my car’s decibel rating. He didn’t so I told him that if he wasn’t going to give me a ticket, I’d be on my way and left.
BTW, I think this thread is going way beyond traffic lights… 
Hey Mark, long time eh? Ex-Impreza owners represent!
IIRC it is the law, my buddy went to court and lost. I would also like to know if it’s for real or not. No time however for research like that.
That is outrageous. I’ve been told the general rule for accidents is that the person with the least injuries is blamed, regardless of who is actually at fault. Is that true?
Oops… Sorry about that. But I can’t recall a time where anyone has actually looked at me and pulled out anyway; generally they just shoot out without even glancing in my direction.
The trick is not to make eye contact. If they see that you have looked at them, well that means you will get out of their way because they know that you have seen them.
I have had both these happen;
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People who don’t look at you, but they are looking or how else can they steer around you when you play chicken with them and act like you aren’t going to stop… I had a guy once in a car steer right around me as I was half way across the crossing at a set of lights, he even crossed to the wrong side of the road to get around all the scooters and then me. At one stage I was right in his path and I just stopped and stared straight at his face and he acted like I was not even there, but he must have known as he went around me…
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People who do look at you and just continue regardless, I hate these fuckers even more as I feel they know what they are doing is not right but they are obviously saying that they couldn’t give a shit about you.
And back to traffic lights I hate the assholes that cut through the crossing when you have a green light to walk. Both the assholes that don’t stop for the red and continue through with their right turn and the assholes that have the green light and push through the cars and then the crossing to turn left. There are 3 intersections in HsinChuang near where I am where you face these challenges to cross the road everyday, and yes one time one asshole who tried to beat the oncoming traffic hit me and my boy, thus breaking my arm as I mentioned a few posts ago. Ha, he thought a box of apples personally delivered by himself to my hospital room would have been sufficient compensation… How wrong was he… Sometimes I even wonder why they bother painting those crossings on the road or have little green walking men on the traffic lights. Is it to lull people into a false sense of security…
But, Ho Chi Min City was far worse than anywhere I have experienced in Taipei or Taiwan…