A New Power Party (NPP) lawmaker and National Taiwan University Student Council representatives yesterday urged the government and presidential candidates to take note of the “horrid state” of the nation’s pedestrian safety measures, while calling on members of the public to join a protest on Aug. 20 to drive the point home.
At a news conference hosted by NPP Chairwoman Claire Wang (王婉諭), a man surnamed Yu (余), whose wife and daughter died in a traffic accident on May 8, called the government’s efforts to improve pedestrian safety “snail-like,” and urged the presidential candidates in January’s election to speak up for pedestrians.
Every year, more than 3,000 people lose their lives in traffic incidents, while 500,000 people are injured, Wang said.
Photo courtesy of the New Power Party
From January to May there were 1,309 deaths, a record high under the Democratic Progressive Party’s seven years of governance and a regression to statistics recorded more than a decade ago, she said.
“Every driver who gets out or off of their vehicle is a pedestrian,” she said, adding that Taiwan does not need political alliances focused on securing power, but a “pedestrians’ alliance” that would address the issues that make Taiwan an internationally infamous “pedestrian hell,” such as its lack of space for pedestrians, failure to implement a “pedestrian first” mentality when designing sidewalks, and the loosely regulated driver license system.
Cheng You-ching (鄭侑青), a member of civic group Vision Zero, which is organizing the Stop Killing Pedestrians rally on Aug. 20, said Taiwan sidewalks or pedestrian paths are often occupied or obstructed, forcing people to walk in the road, causing more than 400 deaths and injuries per year.
She urged the people to participate in the rally to realize the group’s goal of “Vision Zero,” or zero pedestrian deaths.
Mentally and Physically Challenged People’s Self-Reliance Alliance secretary-general Chuang Chi-ming (莊棋銘) said that last year’s traffic event death rate was eight times that of many developed countries.
This is due to poorly planned sidewalks, and because trees, mailboxes, electric poles and debris often make it so that physically challenged people cannot use the sidewalks, he said, adding that the rural areas of some counties lack sidewalks altogether.
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