The government has announced that the hideous "Taiwan Province" is finally going to be expunged from the nation's license plates this year. I may change mine just to get rid of that noxious label....Chen Chin-yuan, director general of the Highway Bureau, recently announced that all new license plates for cars and motorscooters will show no marks of "areas" where the vehicles are registered, beginning January 1, 007, for all new plates. Old plates will eventually also have to be replaced, he said...sorry, no linky. Got emailed by a friend...
...meanwhile, was zipping along today on my scooter on Han Hsi W. Road in Taiping when I saw the first tangible results of the new "get tough" policy on Taiwan's roads: a speed trap! An actual speed trap on a dangerous road during the day! I nearly fell off my motorcycle in shock. No more will there be red lights "for reference," claims the government. We'll have to wait and see, but I was hugely encouraged to see the cops out there giving out tickets for moving infractions. Hopefully they'll be able to make some real inroads into the crazed driving on our roads, but its more likely to be just another big program announced with fanfare and then fading like broken images from an opium dream a few months down the road. Meanwhile the police issued 15K tickets on day one of the red light running crackdown...
Burned red lights accounted for over 90 percent of all reported violations -- the majority of them reported in Taipei City as well as Taipei and Taoyuan counties.
"Old regulations did not discriminate between running through a red light and making an illegal right turn on a red light, leading many policemen to focus on illegal right turns rather than people running red lights," NPA representative Ho Kuo-rong (
何國榮 ) said."Since the policy has changed, police officers have begun focusing on drivers running red lights, which probably accounts for the surge in tickets," Ho added.
Ho said that the new measures were simply "a necessary evil," as traffic signals are the clearest indicators of right of way.
"And if you can't make them stop at the red light, then you can't make them follow other traffic regulations," Ho added.
Of course, I'll be delighted right up to the moment I get my first ticket....
[Taiwan]
Ahh, another governmental tax program disguised as enforcement of sound policies, as well as more quota-based financial payment incentive for hardworking members of the traffic police. Hey, at least we use the traffic lights as references, unlike them down south who use it as decorations.
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, it’s about bloody time. Many Taiwanese from outside Taipei really should learn how to drive civilly and politely. Hopefully, the end result will become similar to the scooter helmet campaign, with the mass majority of the drivers and riders treating the traffic code as a way of life, instead of a book to be memorized and an exam to be passed. Hopefully this will also stop the bus, truck, or sports car drivers on the highway from fulfilling their F1 roleplaying fantasies. Last time I checked, we have a highway system instead of a freeway system.
My guess is like yours, Michael--that this will be a short-term crack-down. After a few months (at the most), it'll be back to business as usual.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I wonder how many foreigners who drive or ride motorcycles in Taiwan actually have licenses. (I do!) And will the police still be as afraid as they typically are to stop Westerners? (Though they weren't too afraid to stop me when I turned right on red a few years ago...)
I know you are being tongue-in-cheek, Anonymous, but how far south are we talking here? Not that south, I mean south, geo...graph...ically.
ReplyDeleteThe first and only time I went to Kaohsiung (for my own personal picture tour) I was struck by how well-enforced the streets were. I don't just mean nighttime, like here in Taichung county. And at night, they turn off the automatic signals, speeding them up, from what I could tell, but doubling their steely eyes and roadblocks (they were the ones at the traffic light controls).
They aren't ogres, either. I was driving the wrong way (unintentinally) during the day near the Kaohsiung Film Archives and the the big Buddhist temple. It's one of these two way streets that suddenly merge into a one-way street without telling you, unless perhaps you read Chinese or see the other cars doing what they should be doing. One of those policemen in the tall hats stared at me and wildly drove back. I was in shock. I though he want to pull me over. Wrong. He was waving me to the other side to turn back to the right side (whatever that was). That was another policemen further on, but he didn't go after me.
Man, Kaohsiung policemen look intimidating! But they're not out to get your head. They just want to contribute more or smoothly to increased order, unlike in Taichung county, which is just ridiculous.
Another thing that really gets me in Taichung and Miaoli counties is the ridiculous, slow, aimless driving. Slow driving can be just as dangerous. I can't count how many stoplights I've missed (honking at the people in the tunnel ahead of me in the last part of the way). Space sharing is a joke.
Yeah! Get rid of that garbage! Taiwan Province looks so retarded.
ReplyDeleteNow all we have to do is get people to say "All country" 全國(Country-wide/National) instead of "All province" 全省.
Michael, be careful the next time you are driving to my place. They have installed hidden speed cameras on the expressway (74), in an attempt to enforce the 80kph speed limit. (this is according to some TV news thing tht I was half paying attention to)
ReplyDeleteTHanks, Karl. I figured they might do that. I'll be taking the motorcycle anyway from now on.
ReplyDeleteMichael
And when things get really civilized they can start to put some public education pieces on TV educating the highly skilled driving force that slower moving vehicles should stay to the right and let faster moving vehicles (like me) pass on the left. I was told by local folks that they actually used to have such things on TV but gave up as nobody paid attention..........
ReplyDeleteHere are some links to the Taiwan Province being deleted from the lic plates as of January 1, two in Chinese, one in English.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cdnnews.com.tw/20061228/news/cjcy/100000002006122720392983.htm
http://www.rti.org.tw/News/NewsContentHome.aspx?NewsID=57778&t=1
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2007/01/04/2003343336
But even though the new plates won't say Taiwan Province anymore, the national ID cards for people who are not registered domiciles in Taipei or Kaoshiung, in other words, everyone else, their ID cards say on the back that they live in "Taiwan Province, Changua City" for example. So it's a never ending story.....