Nearly 70 percent of people said drivers and motorcyclists “seldom” or “rarely” yield to pedestrians when turning, while more than 70 percent said that walking on Taiwan’s streets is dangerous, a survey conducted by the New Power Party (NPP) found.
The survey was conducted after more than 3,000 people died and 490,000 were injured in traffic accidents last year — a record number, NPP caucus whip Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) said yesterday.
International media have highlighted the plight of pedestrians in Taiwan, and it has been called a “living hell for pedestrians,” he added.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
“We wanted to review these transport issues from the perspective of pedestrians, drivers and motorcyclists. This should be the first survey designed to investigate how at risk pedestrians feel on the streets, whether motorists are yielding for them ... and why pedestrians are unable to freely access the space reserved for them. We wanted to use actual data to show the circumstances facing pedestrians,” he said.
Chiu said 70.58 percent of respondents said that walking on the streets is risky, while 18.54 percent said it is “very dangerous” and 52.04 percent said it is “dangerous.”
Of the respondents, 48.65 percent said drivers and motorcyclists “seldom” yield to them when crossing the street, while 19 percent said it “rarely” occurs.
The survey found that 50.59 percent of Taipei residents and 46.15 percent of New Taipei City residents walk more than 15 minutes per day, which was higher than the national average of 36.82 percent.
Regarding the space reserved for pedestrians, 51.29 percent of respondents said that it is too narrow, 47.6 percent said that it is obstructed by too many utility facilities, 46.15 percent talked about issues with the pavements, while 42.6 percent said they had problems with large height differences, steep slopes and a lack of barrier-free facilities.
About 30 percent said that signage and demarcation lines for pedestrian areas were unclear, while 19.19 percent said that insufficient lighting is a problem.
Asked how the environment for pedestrians could be improved, 67.11 percent said that road designs need to be improved, 20 percent said drivers must be better educated, while 11.64 percent said strict law enforcement is needed.
About 34 percent said that roads should be designed to accommodate the needs of elderly people, while 32.2 percent said the needs of general pedestrians should be taken into consideration first.
Others cited the needs of children, students and people with disabilities as a top priority.
Of the respondents, 32.51 percent that children can start walking to school by themselves when they are in fifth or sixth grade, while 23.3 percent said they can begin doing so when they are in third or fourth grade.
Less than 5 percent of respondents said that children in the first or second grade can walk to school by themselves, and about 8 percent said they were unsure about allowing their children to walk to school.
Chiu said that about 3,000 people die in traffic accidents every year, about 400 of whom are pedestrians.
“Statistics from the National Police Agency showed that 80 percent of the pedestrians killed in traffic accidents died after being hit by motor vehicles when they were on the street or on pedestrian crossings,” he said. “To improve the environment for pedestrians, the number one task is to redesign the roads so that space can be allocated more fairly among all users, particularly pedestrians.”
A YouTuber called “OWL” said that drivers should be told specifically about how far from the pedestrian crossing they need to stop when yielding to pedestrians in an intersection, adding that the Ministry of Transportation and Communications should ensure that people are educated about yielding to pedestrians before they pass their drivers’ test.
“The ministry should not leave the job of cracking down on dangerous drivers to the police. Not only does it not reduce pedestrian casualties, but it increases the burden on the police,” he said.
The survey, which was conducted from July 24 to Aug. 6, collected 10,733 samples.
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