Taipei City Government is to strengthen measures to clamp down on motorists who fail to yield the right of way to pedestrians starting in November as Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) vows to create a safe and friendly environment for pedestrians.
The right of way given to pedestrians is already protected by law and motorists can be fined between NT$1,200 and NT$3,600 for failing to give people on foot the right of way in accordance with Violations of Road Traffic Regulations (道路交通管理處罰條例). However, the law has rarely been enforced since the initial campaign was launched years ago.
In Taipei, the city government restarted the campaign in 2009 when hosting the Taipei International Deaflympics. According to the information from Taipei City’s Department of Transportation, the traffic police have reported on 3,132 violation cases so far this year.
As part of the latest efforts to ensure the right of way for pedestrians, Hau yesterday instructed the department to promote the campaign throughout next month and dispatch more traffic police to clamp down on motorists violating the law starting in November.
“Taipei should make the campaign that gives the right of way to pedestrians part of the city’s culture and create a friendlier environment for pedestrians,” he said at Taipei City Hall.
In November, the department is to dispatch more traffic police to the city’s 120 intersections where the most traffic accidents occur, such as Yanping N Road, Roosevelt Boulevard Chongqing S Road and Hengyang Road, and install surveillance cameras in a bid to clamp down on motorists who fail to give pedestrians the right of way.
Director of the city’s traffic police division Dennis Huang (黃勢清) said the division is to also clamp down on pedestrians who fail to walk on zebra crossings or who cross the streets on red lights. Such offenses could warrant fines of NT$600.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS