From today, to gain a driver’s license, applicants must pass a road test in addition to a written test and an off-road test.
Previously, applicants for licenses to drive light vehicles were only required to pass a written test and a simulated road test at an off-road course.
The new rules stipulate that successful applicants must gain a minimum of 85 points in a written exam and 70 points in the road and off-road tests.
The new rules also emphasize safe driving habits and require test-takers to check their surroundings, tires and underneath their vehicles before they commence their journeys.
They must also look to see if there are any people or vehicles behind them before they start the test, the new regulations stipulate.
Failure to follow any of the stipulated conditions results in a 32-point penalty, which means that the applicant automatically fails.
Under the new rules, applicants who fail to fasten their seat belts, use their indicators before changing lanes or making a turn, or open their car doors properly on entry and exit, also incur a 32-point penalty.
The road test has been in place since March last year on a trial basis, but is now to become mandatory.
The Directorate-General of Highways on Saturday said that driving on road markings, which also results 32-point deduction, was the most common mistake drivers made in the road test during the trial period.
The second-most common mistake was failing to properly open car doors and the third was failing to signal when turning, it said.
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry