Driving in Taiwan
My wife and I have been on a two-week holiday in Taiwan and have been amazed at the incredible hospitality we have received.
However, this courtesy and patience do not seem to apply to driving. Speed limits are regularly ignored and reckless driving seems to be the norm, with little evidence of police enforcement.
Yesterday, while driving on Highway No. 9, we were nearly murdered by a 20m-long truck carrying petroleum that decided to overtake four cars and a truck around a blind bend in a no-overtaking area.
I have driven all over Southeast Asia and this is the closest to death I have ever come.
The actions of this driver could have been catastrophic, especially considering the inflammable load he was transporting.
At another point in the journey I had the driver behind honking his horn, because he thought I should ignore the red light at a roadworks.
Tailgating by excessively speeding trucks and buses is commonplace.
It is such a shame that the memories I shall be sharing with friends on my return to Hong Kong will first and foremost be these, rather than the beautiful scenery and friendliness that we otherwise experienced.
Clearly, something is amiss in the awarding of licenses and the enforcement of traffic rules.
Thankfully still alive.
David Wilkinson
Hong Kong
Certain defeat
As a long-range observer it seems to me that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is directing itself to certain defeat in next year’s elections.
I suggest that the DPP has become the political expression of “radical chic.” Its backward-looking and unscientific policy on nuclear power generation is motivated by uninformed hysteria at a time when the rest of the world is moving to modern nuclear power stations, which are the cleanest form of energy generation there is.
The people of Taiwan expressed their support for nuclear power generation in November last year.
Further, these so called “greenies” seem to forget that 82.2 percent of Taiwan’s electricity is generated by fossil fuels and only 11.4 percent from nuclear sources.
Taiwan would be a much greener nation if the reverse were the case. This is the sensible way to proceed.
On another tack, the DPP participated in the same-sex marriage ruse by proceeding with same-sex marriage legislation contrary to the democratically expressed wishes of 77 percent of the Taiwanese public.
It is clear that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and the DPP were embarrassed by the referendum results and are seeking to bypass it.
Tsai and former premier William Lai (賴清德) — who is also a DPP presidential primary contender — appear to be on the same page on these issues and will wear equal opprobrium for their stance.
In many ways this is a shame, as the DPP seemed to be expanding the dichotomy between China and Taiwan, which probably reflects public sentiment more accurately than the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Gavan Duffy
Queensland, Australia
Raising fines
The article about fining drivers who contravene crosswalk rules evokes the legend of King Canute ordering the tide to recede (“Amendments aim to raise crosswalk infraction fines,” April 26, page 2). Raising fines will most likely accomplish nothing unless there is enforcement behind the new rules.
In my years here I have noted that cars and motorcycles often use pedestrian crossings as convenient parking places, especially when there is a convenience store at a corner.
At some intersections it is safer to cross on a red light because turning traffic moves so fast that it cannot or will not stop for a pedestrian crossing on a green light. Cars and motorcycles frequently enter the intersection after the light has already gone red.
I have never seen any enforcement in those situations.
When I was a student in Canada, Montreal increased the fine for cars crossing an intersection on a red light from C$5 to C$50 (US$3.74 to US$37.36). That had no measurable effect until the funds raised from the estimated infractions were allocated to enforcement. That stopped the habit quite quickly.
It is even plausible that if the probability of being caught in an infraction had doubled and no increase in penalties had been enacted, the effect on public safety would be higher.
Increasing the fines is a cheap way of covering the legislators with an aura of glory, but is unlikely to improve safety unless a corresponding increase in enforcement is undertaken.
Putting teeth into the laws might result in losing votes, so it is not a viable alternative from their point of view.
Emilio Venezian
New Taipei City
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