Crazy Taiwan driving experiences and how to fix them
By Jonathan Gropper, an International expatriate from the US living in Taiwan with nearly a million Kilometers behind the wheel.
I was talking to a local friend of mine about neighborly and polite behavior. He said that Taiwanese society is highly civil and courteous. “Just look at the MRT”, he urged.
When asked, “well, what about the roads?” The conversation quickly turned to Taiwan driving experiences. My friend proffered that the problem is the roads. I countered by saying it is the lack of driving education, driving civility and enforcement. I then began to look up statistics.
According to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC), around 10 people die on the road each day and over 500,000 are injured each year. For comparison, Japan with a population roughly 5 times the size of Taiwan, experiences about 7 road fatalities a day per The Japan Times. Road experiences in Taiwan were described as a “living hell” for pedestrians in a recent CNN Article and Taiwan’s road traffic fails to meet the standard of most developed countries, according to the MOTC.
After reading the CNN article I looked up the 10 worst cities for driving on the planet. To my surprise, I’ve driven in 7 of them yet Taipei was not on the list. For me, driving in Taipei (and Taiwan in general)…
