Road Safety Hazards in Taiwan… wait, what safety?
For the majority of the population in Taiwan road rules are something that are adhered to. The understanding that if ‘I follow the rules others will to and traffic will subsequently flow more freely’ seems to have been wholeheartedly adopted.
There is however a noticeable minority who just don’t give a rats arse. Unfortunately ignoring the road rules seems to be sometimes promoted, even by the government.
The other week I was on my bicycle and I took a sharp corner onto a main through road. Less then 20 meters around the 90 degree turn I ran into this:
Now I was on a bicycle and was able to whack on my brakes and cruise through the narrow gap on the right. God help you if you were on a scooter or car speeding around the corner like your life depended on it (speed limits, what speed limits?).
This was mind you in the middle of a week day and although I waited for the traffic to die down before taking a photo, it was pretty damn busy.
What gets me is the complete lack of safety signage or warning of any kind set up. Absolutely no signage was to be found on either lane at any distance from the road work area. I checked roughly 200m either way down the street. Nothing, nada zip.
Additionally the complete abandonment of any sort of order and utter dependence on the traffic sorting itself out as everybody approaches the one lane bottleneck was sort of amusing. People in Taiwan seem to have massive confidence issues on the road so I imagine that I got pretty lucking taking my shot during a quiet time.
Presumably the construction workers had had enough and taken a break for lunch. Or gone to stock up on some more betel nuts. Or were rocking out at the local KTV. Or were taking a nap somewhere. Or had just gone home for the day.
Who knows.
March 18th, 2010 at 5:32 pm Elbowgrease(Quote)
Of most interest to me is the amount of scooters in the left of the pic. At 42 i got my motorcycle Ls on monday and have been thinking of buying a scooter (currently on my sons XR250).
Any idea how much they cost? As for the roadworks, i suppose your use to Aussie norms and are starting to find out that not every country has such a high safety (nanny state)standard.
March 18th, 2010 at 11:40 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
In Taiwan scooters are everywhere so aren’t really that expensive. Brand new for a 150cc you’re looking at around 50,000 NTD ($1700AUD). Second hand models and lower capacity engines are obviously cheaper.
I’ve heard a 50cc second hand goes for a few hundred AUD. Obviously living in Australia you’re going to be paying a premium price as not many people ride them.
I’m planning on getting myself a 150cc brand new scooter sometime in May and can’t wait. I’ve had a zip around on some scooters here and they are great fun (even when you’re wearing a girls hello kitty helmet!).
March 19th, 2010 at 3:45 am Erica(Quote)
try go to big city like Taipei. Whatever you were describing here and your previous blogs gave me the impression that you are trapped in the rural area oz!
March 19th, 2010 at 8:22 am Tim(Quote)
What Oz, you couldn’t jump the cones lol?
March 19th, 2010 at 4:12 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
I ride a Surly Long Haul Trucker. Lets just say it’s not built for bicycle acrobatics
.
March 19th, 2010 at 10:51 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
I’ve been around Taipei and Taichung a bit and to be honest, language barriers aside they remind me of Melbourne a bit too much. Perhaps not so much Taichung but I know if I move to Taipei I won’t learn Chinese. I’ll just wind up with an english speaking girlfriend and get lazy.
Most of Taiwan’s population lives out of the cities so for the experience I’m kind of staying away from them. I want to see how the rest of Taiwan’s population lives, learn Chinese and try to enjoy life out of the cities for a few years.
I’ll definitely wind up moving to Taipei after a year or too though. The girls there just blow the rest of the country away and it’s a nice urban cosmopolitan atmosphere.
March 20th, 2010 at 8:08 am Erica(Quote)
really? do all girls there speak good English?
March 20th, 2010 at 12:21 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
Not all but most that are interested do.
Having said that I managed to get together with one cute girl who spoke barely any english. I had to rig up my phone so we could talk in SMS in Chinese when I wasn’t with her (got how to do that lined up for an upcoming post).
March 20th, 2010 at 12:37 pm Erica(Quote)
so you can barely speak chinese how are you going to type in chinese? lol. and you are seeing this girl? will you do a post on that?
March 20th, 2010 at 12:44 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
That was the beauty of it, I didn’t need to
. I’ll go into more detail when I get around to publishing the article.
There’s been a few girls so far. I’m not entirely decided on publishing personal encounters in detail, I don’t think it’s fair to the other party.
I will use my personal experience to explore topics in dating the locals though. I guess in them I’ll be using some specific examples but I’d rather not do an article on a particular girl per say.
March 20th, 2010 at 1:04 pm Erica(Quote)
cannot wait for that post
of course, but it’d be interesting to read about dating experiences in taiwan.
June 13th, 2011 at 12:22 pm Garry Cole(Quote)
Old Aussie living not far from Taipei, in Yong-Her (north of main city a few clicks). Been here over ten years … don’t speak or write (or read) Chinese. Very interested in traffic here though. So interested I’ve got over two thousand video’s & pictures of violations of many sorts, though I don’t focus on parking issues exactly, unless they create danger of hinder access to people or vehicles. Many shots of child on scooters with parents … child, no helmet (it’s 2011 already). Scares the life out of me.
Couple days back was bashed by owners or operators of two breakfast type businesses close to home because they didn’t want me taking pictures of the “illegalities” there … ended up in the hands of the cops … lot of good that did.
These “bashers” made a deal in the presence of several police officers (to avoid being charged) at the police station & the context was … they try managing customer parking & such … today (monday June 13, only four days after making the “deal” they made) … I took more pictures of more violations in the same place.
Contacting higher police officials & trying to talk to or contact other government people about traffic in Taiwan. Want to make a media event of all I’m doing & what kind of ah, “support” there is … heh … like a joke, that (so far).
Anyone here interested? Wanting people to help me make Taiwan or even the world more aware of what’s going on here. Need sources I can contact, evidence I can present … help of all kinds really. Pictures, personal input … whatever will help.
Please, help me get the idea across that lives do matter & that people who don’t agree with that, just shouldn’t be on the roads at all.
I’m 59 … married to a Taiwanese handicapped woman … been married ten years now … she’s scared to walk across roads, or get on the bike with me (our only transport). That, to me, seems so wrong.
I can’t tell her what I’m doing re wanting to make a bigger noise about all this … she’s scared of retaliation from unhappy people. I gotta do this alone. Can anyone here help?
Oh .. printing this page just for my records.
Garry … Taiwan.
June 14th, 2011 at 1:27 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
Yeah you’ve really got to adjust your road safety expectation levels here, moreso when you’re actively driving (or cycling) on Taiwan’s roads.
Uh seriously? Like bash bashed?
That’s pretty fucked up. I take random photos all the time, I sometimes worry about someone getting angry at me but out and out bashed over it?
Was there any communication or did people just start laying into you? What did they care if you were taking photos outside?
If you’ve got thousands of photos and videos, why not start a blog (hint hint, trafficintaiwan.com is free). Just publishing a few times a week (or even every so often) thousands of photos/videos is eons of content. Moreso if you’re continuing to source new photos/vidoes.
Once your archives are big enough you might try to leverage some media attention from it (although don’t be too sure about that).
I’ve been involved in a traffic accident here (haven’t written about it yet) and the police were all like ‘yeah we’re the police and all but you guys sort it out, we don’t really want to get involved’.
The other party just lied through their teeth and in the end I walked away from court action as it just wasn’t worth it.
I wouldn’t count on drastically changing anything (asian’s have a driving reputation for a reason) but at least with an outlet you’d be creating some awareness.