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Traffic crackdown misses the issue

`Instead of simplifying the traffic safety problem in Taiwan by saying speed is the problem, we should focus on how to prevent multiple points of intersection as the key issue in traffic safety enforcement.'

After new traffic regulations took effect on Jan. 1, the media and law enforcement agencies have time and again reminded drivers that traffic police will crack down on dangerous driving using hidden cameras from undercover police vehicles. If you don't drive carefully, your wallet could get a lot lighter.

Setting aside the question of effectiveness, the thrust of this kind of traffic safety campaign is control: Drivers have to follow traffic regulations without question, or else they will be fined. While this kind of measure may be appropriate under some circumstances, its effectiveness is questionable in open, variable traffic safety situations -- especially with respect to controlling vehicle speed.

As a student in Germany, I remember seeing an interview with the conductor Herbert von Karajan some 10 years back. The interview took place while driving on the autobahn. As the reporter and von Karajan were discussing classical music, the camera would occasionally pan in on the instrument panel of the Porsche they were in. They were driving at between 180kph and 190kph the whole time.

I often describe this scene in class and ask my students how a man in his 70s or 80s could drive that fast. Was it because the roads were so good? The German autobahns are some of the best roads in the world, and driving on them is indeed comfortable.

Was it the car? Porsche is after all one of the most prestigious sports cars in the world. For a Porsche, 190kph is nothing.

Was it the driver? Von Karajan had the sensitive soul of a conductor. He would be more attuned to the rhythm of speed than an ordinary person.

Or was it because Germany's driving rules are fair and reasonable and the Germans are famous for being law abiding.

Although my students would argue for one cause or the other, I have to say that all of these answers are correct. And yet I feel that none of them touch on the core issue, which can be summarized in one regulation: The fastest car drives in the inside lane.

This driving rule is why the Germans do not have a speed limit except where mandated by local road conditions. From this simple principle flows a series of dependent rules -- no passing on the right, slower vehicles bear liability for accidents if they occupy the inner lane, no passing on the shoulder and keeping the outer lanes clear when nearing access road entrances.

Taken together, these rules constitute what legal scholars and sociologists call a system of legal ethics. This, in other words, is the way in which German driving operates.

By driving in straight lines, the number of points of intersection is reduced. This is why Germany has fewer accidents despite a lack of speed limits on its freeways.

Counter-intuitively, the greatest number of car accidents occur on sections where a 30kph speed limit has been imposed. This shows that vehicle speed does not necessarily cause safety problems on freeways.

Instead of simplifying the traffic safety problem in Taiwan by saying speed is the problem, we should focus on how to prevent multiple points of intersection as the key issue in traffic safety enforcement.

One of the jobs that the Taiwanese highway patrol perform is what is popularly known as "demo patrolling." That is, police officers would demonstrate how one should drive on the freeway. Seeing an officer on demo patrol driving at speed limit is quite a sight, with a whole line of cars following behind that daer not exceed the speed limit by even a hair.

Drivers in Taiwan thus equate speeding with fines. Since no one pays any attention to staying in one lane at high speed, the practice of allowing the fastest vehicles to drive in the inside lane never developed into an ethic here.

As a result, one can often see cars driving abreast in two or three lanes on the local freeways. And when drivers are near the speed limit, none of them wants to be out in front. This causes lines of traffic to build up in each lane behind the first driver like a hen leading her chicks.

Driving in formation like this almost always snarls traffic. That's when drivers start driving dangerously, passing on the shoulder, weaving in and out of traffic and tailgating. But while regulations prohibiting these dangerous driving maneuvers are enforced, the freeway police should also be aware of the utility and safety enhancing effects of staying in one lane at high speed.

The most commonly assumed cause of highway accidents is failure to maintain a safe distance between cars, and speeding is most often cited as the culprit. However, this inference is not entirely accurate, as each person may have a different view on what constitutes speed. Some people get nervous driving just 60kph. While in Germany, I would get passed driving at 230kph, but now that I'm older, I'm reluctant to drive past 140kph to 150kph. High speed is not the main cause of highway accid-ents. Accidents mostly result because of acceler-ating and decelerating while changing lanes unnecessarily.

In offering these personal views for the consideration of fellow citizens and law enforcement personnel, I hope that rules against driving slowly in the inside lane, passing on the shoulder and splitting lanes will be more strictly enforced. However, I also hope to establish an ethic of reserving the inside lane for faster cars, as well as challenge the authorities to rethink what speeding means.

Our written laws should set reasonable speed standards for our major highways and define what a safe following distance is at a given speed, but we should also respect the dynamic unwritten laws of our driving culture. Otherwise the highways would be paralyzed during holidays if the mass of drivers all strictly observed the distance between cars as stipulated in the laws.

Yang Chuen-jen is director of the National Central University's Institute of Law and Government.

Translated by Michael Fahey and Marc Langer
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