Taiwan Ho! Forums

This has been an annoyance for me especially since being a father, so I need to rant.

Simply, why do people not wait for red pedestrian crossing lights? It's just a question of seconds, and my daughter can understand; red stop, green go (albeit cautiously) and she is three.

I guess in England people drive faster so crossing on a red is more likely to end in death, but still I see people having to turn back or being stranded mid road here. And even by the local police station no one gives a toss.

I know in the old days there were no rules, and if the older pedestrians want to die, then fine. That's their choice. But as soon as one idiot starts to cross everyone follows, and a small child has less chance of survival.

Time to video and shame I think (and now with the YouTube plugin we can - thanks dogface).

I get this all the time when I take my walk around the neighborhood in the AM. I've been thinking about video taping them for years...but honestly, I just wanna take a walk.

As for your daughter, use the constant dangerous crossings as repeated reminders of why people get hit by cars and scooters and buses and trucks and backhoes and bikes and motorcycles in Taiwan, when they really could avoid it by waiting 10 seconds.

Funny you should mention a 'name and shame'. I was thinking of building a website where foreigners (can't see any locals participating) could post photos or videos of Taiwanese drivers doing lethal things. I already have a wonderful collection on my cellphone. It would have be done with a certain amount of sensitivity - innocent until proven guilty and all that - but if based abroad I doubt there would be any legal hassle. We might be able to accumulate enough submissions to tally recurring registration plates. The plate numbers recurring the most could win an 'asshole of the month' award, or something, in different categories: red-light running; dangerous parking; texting-while-driving; etc etc.

On the other hand, Taiwanese people know perfectly well they can't drive and just brazen it out, so why bother? People will still die, the police still won't arrest anyone (except possibly the people posting the evidence), and everyone will still shrug and grin and say 'this is Taiwan'.

I saw a classic on the news the other night. A security video recording a controlled junction caught a car broadsiding a scooter. The poor scooter driver was knocked 20 yards and his helmet came off (miraculously his head stayed on). The conclusion? "We need to legislate for full-face helmets". Only passing mention of the fact that someone - I couldn't figure out who - had obviously run a red light through the junction, at speed. Talk about treating the symptom instead of the disease.

I think Dogface is right. Just tell your daughter: cars are dangerous, Taiwanese people haven't yet understood this, and you have to stay out of their way if you want to stay alive.

I was thinking facebook*, buy didn't have the gumption to actually do it. If YOU set it up, though, I will take my morning walks with my video camera! Promise!








* I'd say set it up on the HO! but we three would be the only ones to see it.

I don't know, I think we can still do something useful. There is an official fine for jaywalking right? If we extrapolated a couple of crossings and had a money they could be making ticker they would pay attention.

Or we could ask to handle the road crossing fines as the wheel clampers do. A new franchise business? Clamp 'em as they cross.

I can always set up something up web video wise...

We did have the old dickhe@d thread from a while back but I'd be happy to contribute to something more substantial. Here, FB or anywhere.

You know what I hate? When you are in a crosswalk and the approaching car does not stop but kind of coasts forward towards you expecting you to hurry across? Doesn't matter if there's a stop sign or a traffic light or you are actually, physically in the crosswalk, they'll just continue to move towards you. That really burns me up. Sometimes I debate actually stopping to get them to apply the brakes and stop, but then I worry they won't and I'll get knocked down or worse.

I don't drive here but I get the feeling that it's everyone for himself out on the roads or there's no camaraderie. This manifests itself in many ways, but one that I've noticed is this: when a fellow driver stops or does something nice for you (which is in itself rare) seldom do people acknowledge it with a thank you wave. They simply drive through looking straight ahead. A thank you wave is pretty standard back on the roads I drove on. Am I just not noticing it here?

I think it's getting better Jake. Nowadays you'll get a thank you wave or someone will yield to let you in. More often than in years past.

Jake, once my curiosity got the better of me and I actually tried that. Some daft woman was rolling slowly, slowly through a red light (and across a pedestrian crossing) as I was walking across (my green, of course). I didn't actually stop, just slowed to a very casual stroll. And you know what? She kept moving until she was close enough for me to bang on the hood of her car, and then finally noticed I was there. She mouthed 'sorry sorry' (as they do) and ... KEPT ON MOVING! I found out a little too late that it's quite difficult to get out of the way of a moving car even when it's moving slowly, and was half-sprawled across the front of her car before she finally discovered that cars have a brake pedal. No harm done, of course, except to my dignity and faith in human intelligence. I gave her car a final thump and scuttled off.

Lesson learned? Do not mess with people who do not even know where the controls of their vehicle are. But it still cracks me up when I see people doing something dangerous or illegal REAL SLOW. I think they imagine if they move slowly enough, their car will wink out of existence in this universe and then miraculously merge into the place they want to be, like quantum tunnelling...

Real slow, unless it's raining and far more dangerous and then they are much MUCH more careless.

I think it's the same as a pedestrian, as in if a car does actually stop at a crossing, but I always make a point of smiling and nodding thanks if that happens.

I think it's a question of eye contact in many cases, although not in the case of the blue van drivers who couldn't give a toss either way. I reckon that if you make initial eye contact, the driver thinks that you have seen them and thus expects you to give way and won't stop. If you walk on head down they will almost always stop.



More fuel for the video Think of how much local TV coverage we'd get with a crazed old woman driving down the road with a foreigner sprawled on the bonnet. Quantum tunnel that!

Actually she was young and rather hot ... but very very clueless. Yeah, the eye contact works well - on the rare occasions when someone is actually looking to the left while pulling out of a side road (normally, of course, they're looking firmly to the right and doing that slowly-slowly thing) it helps to look directly at the person so that they can't help but register there's a real live human being on that approaching scooter, and driving a ton of metal out in front of him will have unpleasant results...