The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved an amendment to the Highway Act (公路法), which aims to put pedestrians front and center of traffic design, making roads more “people-friendly.”
The amendment makes it clear that road design, construction, maintenance and traffic engineering should all be undertaken with pedestrians top of mind, to reduce traffic accidents.
For example, when roads pass medical institutions and government offices, or through downtown districts or transport hubs, there must be accessible sidewalks, pedestrian walkways or low-traffic areas nearby, the amendment says.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications has been appointed to establish safety standards, and should introduce regulations to ensure safe transportation infrastructure, the amendment says.
The government has come under pressure this year to improve traffic safety, particularly for pedestrians, following several high-profile accidents that resulted in fatalities, large protests and negative international media coverage.
The Cabinet put forward an action plan in May to allocate NT$24.5 billion (US$779.06 million) from this year to 2025 to improve “road quality,” and in June raised the maximum fine for motorists failing to yield to pedestrians from NT$3,600 to NT$6,000, among other measures.
In the first eight months of this year, there were 268,330 traffic accidents and 1,991 deaths, up 11.3 percent and 0.9 percent year-on-year respectively, transportation ministry data showed.
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