The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous.
“We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office.
“In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations more thoroughly,” he said.
Photo courtesy of the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office
The Highway Bureau would also exclude questions that could be answered easily, he added.
The bureau gave as an example a question asking if it is correct that drivers should reduce speed and be prepared to stop when their vision is hindered by heavy rain.
The new policy governing the issuance of a driver’s license is part of the reforms that the ministry had proposed after a 78-year-old driver hit pedestrians and scooter riders near a school in New Taipei City, killing three people and injuring 12.
Photo: CNA
Aside from lowering the age for elderly drivers to renew their license to 70 from 75, the ministry said it would change the driver’s license test and would ask those who frequently contravene traffic regulations to receive additional training.
The written test for car drivers contains 40 questions, while that for motorcyclists has 50 questions, Highway Bureau Director-General Chen Wen-juei (陳文瑞) said.
In both tests, half of the questions instruct test takers to identify whether a statement is true or false, while the other half are multiple-choice questions, he said.
“People have a 50 percent chance to guess the correct answer in true-or-false questions, which makes it difficult to determine if they truly understand traffic regulations. We are considering eliminating all true-or-false questions and administering tests with multiple-choice questions only,” Chen Wen-juei said, adding that test takers would be required to choose an answer from four choices instead of three.
The question bank for the car license exam has 1,400 questions, while that for the motorcycle license exam has 1,600 questions, the bureau said, adding that it would remove easy questions, which more than 90 percent of test takers answer correctly, from the question banks.
“We are not making the written test so difficult that nobody can get their license. We hope the test can differentiate between varying levels of driving competence,” Chen Wen-juei said.
The new license test is scheduled to be implemented next year.
About 549,000 people take license tests for cars and motorcycles every year.
The pass rate for the written test for a car license is about 85 percent, while that of motorcycle license is about 70 percent, bureau data showed.
About 70 percent of people taking the car license exam pass both the written and driving tests, while 50 to 60 percent of those taking the motorcycle exam pass both tests, the data showed.
Auckland rang in 2026 with a downtown fireworks display launched from New Zealand’s tallest structure, Sky Tower, making it the first major city to greet the new year at a celebration dampened by rain, while crowds in Taipei braved the elements to watch Taipei 101’s display. South Pacific countries are the first to bid farewell to 2025. Clocks struck midnight in Auckland, with a population of 1.7 million, 18 hours before the famous ball was to drop in New York’s Times Square. The five-minute display involved 3,500 fireworks launched from the 240m Sky Tower. Smaller community events were canceled across New Zealand’s
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said it is closely monitoring developments in Venezuela, and would continue to cooperate with democratic allies and work together for regional and global security, stability, and prosperity. The remarks came after the US on Saturday launched a series of airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was later flown to New York along with his wife. The pair face US charges related to drug trafficking and alleged cooperation with gangs designated as terrorist organizations. Maduro has denied the allegations. The ministry said that it is closely monitoring the political and economic situation
‘SLICING METHOD’: In the event of a blockade, the China Coast Guard would intercept Taiwanese ships while its navy would seek to deter foreign intervention China’s military drills around Taiwan this week signaled potential strategies to cut the nation off from energy supplies and foreign military assistance, a US think tank report said. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted what it called “Justice Mission 2025” exercises from Monday to Tuesday in five maritime zones and airspace around Taiwan, calling them a warning to “Taiwanese independence” forces. In a report released on Wednesday, the Institute for the Study of War said the exercises effectively simulated blocking shipping routes to major port cities, including Kaohsiung, Keelung and Hualien. Taiwan would be highly vulnerable under such a blockade, because it
UNRELENTING: China attempted cyberattacks on Taiwan’s critical infrastructure 2.63 million times per day last year, up from 1.23 million in 2023, the NSB said China’s cyberarmy has long engaged in cyberattacks against Taiwan’s critical infrastructure, employing diverse and evolving tactics, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday, adding that cyberattacks on critical energy infrastructure last year increased 10-fold compared with the previous year. The NSB yesterday released a report titled Analysis on China’s Cyber Threats to Taiwan’s Critical Infrastructure in 2025, outlining the number of cyberattacks, major tactics and hacker groups. Taiwan’s national intelligence community identified a large number of cybersecurity incidents last year, the bureau said in a statement. China’s cyberarmy last year launched an average of 2.63 million intrusion attempts per day targeting Taiwan’s critical
RSS