"Memo to MOFA: Taiwanese drivers are morons
If I had to peg a figure on just how many car crashes constitutes a large enough number to even register, let alone acknowledge that there had been a measurable rise in deaths statistically, I’d probably tell you that you’d want at least 100 deaths to work with.
I suppose you could get something remotely meaningful with 50 or so but you’d be pushing it.
Ask Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs however and they’ll tell you it’s just “more than 10″.
Presumably less than 20, otherwise I imagine MOFA would have stated the number was more than 20, MOFA put out an explanation as to why “more than 10″ Taiwanese nationals had been involved in traffic accidents (six of whom died) in 2011.
The official reason?
The traffic regulations in the two countries are different.
(Taiwanese drivers are also) not used to driving on the left side of the street and on the right side of the car.
You’re kidding me, right guys?
First and foremost I’m going to declare my conflict of interest here, being Australian, but I promise you this isn’t about whether or not Australian drivers are better than Taiwanese drivers. We’ve got a fair share of complete and utter morons too.
The problem is that in Taiwan, this moron group makes up the majority of drivers on the road.
Seriously, Taiwanese drivers dying on Australian roads (or any other country’s roads for that matter) has nothing to do with left and right driving and if I had to put a bet down, I’d more than happily go all in on any odds that those involved were universally at fault.
This made all the more hilarious what with MOFA applying the “victim” label universally to each and every Taiwanese driver involved in an accident on Australia’s roads in 2011.
Spend five minutes seconds observing Taiwan’s traffic and you’ll immediately wonder how half of Taiwan’s drivers survive on a day-to-day basis. Back in 2006 it was observed that there were 67,845 road accidents in Taiwan that caused either death or injury in the first five months of the year alone.
That’s roughly 452 road accidents a day. And with 2006′s accident rate noted as being an 11.3% rise year on year (a 20% rise in fatalities), who knows what the current figures are at.
As atrocious as driver awareness and the environment its driver’s are responsible for on Taiwan’s roads, the reason these accident statistics aren’t astronomically higher is because it’s customary for traffic to move much slower.
In Australia it’s customary to drive at whatever the posted speed limit is. In Taiwan if there’s even the slightest build up of traffic this often results in a crawl, or at best cautious 30km/h dawdle.
As such, it’s easy enough to avoid the scooters and cars (taxis) flying around playing funny buggers with the road rules.
There’s also a cultural practice of slowly creeping out of places and expecting those who are under no obligation to give way, stop and give way to you – just because.
A culture that is non-existent in Australia (and other countries).
As I’ve often said, if you tried to pull in front of someone in Australia, no matter how slowly you approached you’d most likely get honked at and then slammed into at 60km/h or close to.
The notion of people not giving way when required and that this is somehow acceptable will almost always result in an accident if acted upon outside of Taiwan. Not withstanding merging into traffic without looking, lack of use of indicators and the “I’m bigger than you so I have automatic right of way no matter how dangerous the situation is” unofficial rule that exists on Taiwan’s roads.
Seriously, I thought driving a Mini back in Australia ingrained a strong sense of defensive driving into me… but Taiwan has since cranked this subconscious mindset into complete overdrive. And if you want to drive on Taiwan’s roads (or ride a bike for that matter as I often do) you have to develop this sense of caution, otherwise you will all to easily wind up dead.
This is precisely why alot of expats simply avoid Taiwan’s roads altogether.
Instead of acknowledging that Taiwan’s roads are an abundance of non-conformance (or even awareness) of basic road rules, a disregard of spacial awareness and chaotic synergy that would rival the bitterest of typhoons, MOFA simply advise Taiwanese drivers to
- practice operating vehicles with right-sided driver’s seats (even though these are illegal in Taiwan?)
- purchase appropriate travel and medical insurance
- (pay) extra attention should also be paid to the local weather and road situations and
- strictly follow the traffic rules
Oh and lastly, because Taiwanese drivers are incapable of fault – always ‘make sure to copy down the details related to the perpetrators‘.
Just the other week I was approaching an intersection on the bicycle when a car got impatient and made an illegal left turn across the intersection without a green turn light.
With me having right of way I slowed down to let him pass (I wasn’t close enough for it to be much of an issue) but then he started to slow down as he approached the pedestrian crossing on the far right of the road.
Thinking he’d still press on I didn’t divert my course and sure enough he came to a rolling stop (with 3/4 of the back of his car sticking out into the intersection and I paid the price.
Nothing serious but in the split second I realised he was stopping and not continuing out of the intersection, I managed to bump my elbow heavily into the rear of his car. As I swerved out into the middle of the intersection to avoid him, I hoped I wouldn’t be rammed from behind.
Luckily I wasn’t, but my balance was off and the bicycle went down. I managed to jump off and land on my feet.
Still with his car sitting half way across the intersection (a busy four lane road on either side), the guy doesn’t move and then as I’m going to retrieve my bike, gets out of his car.
Blowing a fuse is useless in these situations so the best I could do was let off a loud “THIS IS A FUCKING INTERSECTION, SO DRIVE THROUGH IT NEXT TIME IDIOT”.
He gave me a blank look (indicating he spoke no English or was bewildered as to why I’d hit him), so after stating I was ok and pointing at myself he got back into his car and slowly drove off.
As to why he stopped, I have no idea. Maybe his phone rang and he decided with his car half over a pedestrian crossing and sticking out into an intersection it’d be a good time for a chat, or he wanted to read the road signs or decided he’d turned into the wrong street and wanted to back out again onto the main road – who knows.
Any (or all) of the above could have applied.
Point is that this wasn’t just some random occurrence, it’s typical of the day-to-day experience on Taiwan’s roads most people have.
Instead of offering drivers a bunch of ‘feel-good’ precautions, I’d suggest in the future MOFA cut the crap and address the single reason Taiwanese drivers die overseas – they have no idea what road rules are or how to follow them.
February 14th, 2012 at 12:27 pm TaiwanTeacher(Quote)
The simplest road rule to keep in mind when driving in Taiwan is:
“There are no Traffic Laws, only Traffic Suggestions”
Other helpful hints are:
1) “Watch out for LBTs!” (Little Blue Trucks, usually driven by workers trying to complete 8 hours worth of daily driving mileage in 40 minutes time.)
2) “Any girl wearing a pink helmet doesn’t really need a brainbucket on her head because she has no brain to
protect.”
3) “The only thing more dangerous than a girl wearing a pink helmet is one who is riding a black Vespa-style scooter with a cellphone in her ear.”
4) “Righthand traffic lanes are not really for driving; they are just a very, very, very long parking spot.”
5) “The red lines along curbs and at corners of busy intersections are not really ‘No-Parking Zones’; they indicate ‘Mercedes-BMW-Lexus Parking Only’ areas.”
6) “Which ever way you think that taxi in front of you is going to swerve next, it’s sure to be the opposite of that.”
7) “Right turns on red lights are permitted, provided the driver doesn’t look before going.”
“The speed limit has nothing to do with a posted sign; instead it is directly proportional to the amount of open road in front you.”
9) “Every segment of roadway between one traffic light and the next is considered the young boys’ drag strip.”
10) “If you stop your scooter at the front of the scooter zone when waiting for a red light to change, someone on a slower scooter is bound to arrive later, pull up, and sit right in front of you.
February 16th, 2012 at 2:48 am Chubuobcat(Quote)
Haha, regardless of how terrible the traffic is in Taiwan, it doesn’t compare to China.
Seriously when I arrived in Taiwan I thought I had walked in to the Twilight Zone. LBT of Death, scooters that run through traffic like snakes through the grass, crazy little knock off Mini’s (Nissan March) driven by insane women who don’t know left from right, and the universal law is Who ever is bigger has the right of way, unless you have 2 wheels and then its who ever gets to there first.
However, I came to China thinking that I can get a scooter or something like that live on the outside of the city and get around on my own with the confidence that I survived the wild west of Taiwan’s roads for half a decade.
To my surprise the traffic was worse in China that on the worst of days in the worst of the Taroko Gorge tourist traffic. So, even though a few times I borrowed my friend’s bike to go about I made sure to stay on the buses or let someone else ferry me around through the traffic.
Not that the buses are much better but at least there is a element of safety to them that isn’t there on a scooter.