The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is amending regulations and requesting that all cities and counties install countdown timers for red lights only.
Countdown timers at red lights inform motorists about the time left before the traffic light turns green, whereas countdown timers at green lights tell motorists how much time there is left before the light turns red.
At present, counties can choose which system to use and can also opt not to install the devices. In some counties, however, timers for both red lights and green lights are installed.
Chang Shun-ching (張舜清), a section chief at the Department of Railways and Highways, said the Institute of Transportation has analyzed 187 road sections nationwide where the devices are installed.
Results showed that the timers at red lights had helped reduce the number of traffic accidents by 50 percent.
They also reduced deaths and injuries by 100 percent and 52 percent respectively.
Conversely, the number of accidents where countdown timers were used at green lights increased twofold. While the number of fatalities did not rise, the number of injuries was up by more than 30 percent.
When both types of timers are installed, the number of accidents rose 19 percent and injuries 23 percent respectively.
Chang said the policy would likely to take effect in June. The amendment does not need the approval of the legislature.
Chang said trial runs of the two systems were being held in some counties.
Once the amendment is complete, counties will have to follow the regulations, he said.
"If they choose to install timers for green lights, they will be doing so at their own risk," he said.
A small number of Taiwanese this year lost their citizenship rights after traveling in China and obtaining a one-time Chinese passport to cross the border into Russia, a source said today. The people signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of neighboring Russia with companies claiming they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, the source said on condition of anonymity. The travelers were actually issued one-time-use Chinese passports, they said. Taiwanese are prohibited from holding a Chinese passport or household registration. If found to have a Chinese ID, they may lose their resident status under Article 9-1
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
PROBLEMATIC APP: Citing more than 1,000 fraud cases, the government is taking the app down for a year, but opposition voices are calling it censorship Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday decried a government plan to suspend access to Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu (小紅書) for one year as censorship, while the Presidential Office backed the plan. The Ministry of the Interior on Thursday cited security risks and accusations that the Instagram-like app, known as Rednote in English, had figured in more than 1,700 fraud cases since last year. The company, which has about 3 million users in Taiwan, has not yet responded to requests for comment. “Many people online are already asking ‘How to climb over the firewall to access Xiaohongshu,’” Cheng posted on
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS