Analyzing Taiwan’s Transportation Challenges: A Comprehensive Examination
If you interview a Taiwanese who cares about the country and government policies, transportation issues will be definitely raised during the conversation.
You may ask something like: But I heard the public transit is so convenient that I could travel to everywhere without renting a car!
What are the issues and why Taiwanese people keep discussing about it?
As a native who travels around by motorbike, public transit, and private car, and have joined the protests against terrible government policies, and witnessed injuries and got injured on the road, I do have A LOT to say.
When discussing the transportation issues in Taiwan, we must comprehensively analyze various aspects of the problem, including traffic safety, law enforcement, government policy-making processes, and more.
These issues not only directly impact individuals’ daily lives but also have significant implications for the stability and development of society as a whole.
Below, I will provide a detailed analysis of the various aspects of Taiwan’s transportation issues:
1. Traffic Safety Concerns
Traffic safety should always be a focal point of concern. However, each year, a considerable number of traffic accidents occur, resulting in severe personal injuries and property damage.
This is the national death toll trendline chart for the 30th of each month (Results for January to December 2023 are preliminary estimates) provided by Taiwanese government.
According to the chart, the mortality rate due to traffic accidents last year is 1.32%.
While the chart above is the death rate per 100,000 population due to traffic accidents in 20 countries. 1.32% * 100,000 = 1,320. Much higher than ANY countries mentioned here.
Why is it so high?
The causes of accidents are multifaceted, including driver violations, poor road design, inadequate traffic management, flaws in the driver’s license test system, among others.
Driver Violations
The aggression of drivers, especially four-wheel drivers, including reckless tailgating and even collisions, stem from legal loopholes and a culture of car-centric mindset, which was borrowed from the U.S. decades ago when the dominator was shifted from Japanese to Chinese.
Car-centric Mindset
Car-centric mindset fosters an attitude among some four-wheel drivers that their status on the road supersedes that of others.
This entitlement leads to a condescending, unquestionable demeanor towards vulnerable road users like motorcyclists, pedestrians, and the disables, fueling behaviors such as tailgating, reckless driving, and careless accidents.
Legal Loopholes
Legal ambiguity
Prosecutors often charge defendants with “failure to pay attention to the front of the vehicle,” but due to the lack of a specific definition of what constitutes “paying attention to the front of the vehicle,” even drivers involved in deadly accidents may be acquitted.
The news below is saying a drunk four-wheel driver with no driver’s license and caused a deadly car accident and was acquitted eventually.
“Insufficient evidence”
According to prosecutors' words, the absence of CCTVs at the scene of the accident may make it difficult to establish definitive findings. Even though the density of CCTVs is the top 3 highest around the world, 5.5 per person.
Discrimination Against Motorcycle Riders
Ironically, even in the absence of CCTVs at the accident site, the government can illegally access footage from nearby CCTVs to penalize motorcyclists they wish to punish.
Subsequently issued tickets force motorcyclists to pay fines, otherwise they would be breaking the law (yes, the government can break the law, but not the people).
Take the video below as example, the government instructed police officers to work overtime to unlawfully review all CCTV footage in order to penalize the motorcyclist who was on the highway.
Meanwhile, they acquitted the car driver who hit a pregnant woman, citing that the sole CCTV footage could not be deemed as admissible evidence.
The reason why they want to penalize motorcyclists is because of pure discrimination.
Another example:
Although authorities have relaxed penalties for traffic violations below $1200, discriminatory enforcement practices persist. Motorcycle riders are still prohibited from using certain lanes and subjected to harsher penalties for violations compared to car drivers.
Poor Road Infrastructure
Taiwan’s road infrastructure, primarily designed to accommodate automobiles, lacks adequate pedestrian facilities, exacerbating safety concerns.
In urban areas, sidewalks are frequently obstructed by illegal (oh wait, it’s legal now) parked cars, impeding pedestrian passage and endangering their safety.
The Flaws of Driving Point Systems
The driving point system serves as a crucial tool in traffic management efforts, aiming to incentivize compliance with traffic regulations by recording driver violations.
The original system reset every year and suspend your driver’s license for only two months if you accumulate 12 points within one year. It’s already much more lenient than other developed countries, such as the U.K. and Japan.
The accumulation signifies repeat offenses, and considering the timeframe for accumulation, it allows for the evaluation of an individual’s behavioral tendencies.
As many drivers are not accustomed to yielding, let alone stopping for pedestrians. Such widespread behavior needs to be corrected, and continuous recording and accumulation of demerit points are necessary to effect change.
Nevertheless, the government recently made up their minds, without discussing with the people and without scientific research and evidence, to make the system even more lenient.
Proposing to reduce demerit points is tantamount to abandoning multiple lines of defense in maintaining traffic safety, which is highly imprudent and unprofessional.
Problems with Taiwan’s Government Policy-making Processes
According to what I just mentioned above, here comes the last issue I’d like to discuss: the policy-making process.
Taiwan is considered as a democratic country, right?
But the government can swift decisions on road regulations, which affect millions of lives, without any discussion and research, yet many many laws remain stuck in legislative institution for years, if they may potentially have impact on someone’s interests.
Take the Fire Equipment Personnel Act as an example, proposed seven times since 1999 and finally passed last year. While the Minister advocated for the safety, the bill faced opposition from the people whose interests would be impacted.
The fire safety inspection market, although vast, suffers from cutthroat competition, which scarified the quality and caused severe disasters.
Most inspections are conducted by unlicensed workers. The lack of emphasis on professionalism among fire equipment specialists results in endangering lives before faults are discovered.
Some companies view the equipment as tools to evade fines, so they may deliberately deactivate systems after inspections, prioritize cost-cutting over safety, and even pressure legislators to delay or forgo necessary repairs.
What a democratic country it is!
Thanks for reading until the end. Did you have a deeper understanding about the issue?
However, like Hemingway once said:
There are seven-eights of it under water for every part that shows.
The problems are so severe that a normal citizen without any reputations and background can do almost nothing. All the protests have been ignored and all the legal ways got fined.
Sometimes I feel the casualties are never enough for the government to make improvements.
What do you think? Feel free to discuss in the comments!
It’s the longest article I have ever written. Clap if you like!