A “walking festival” was held in Taipei yesterday by a road safety advocacy group to urge the government to pay greater attention to pedestrian rights, with its chairperson calling Taiwan a “living hell for pedestrians” and a “traffic hell.”
The two-and-a-half-hour event began at Beimen Plaza near Taipei Main Station. Participants marched through nearby streets as members of Vision Zero Taiwan, the organizer, and road safety experts examined the area’s traffic planning and road design.
Road safety “still has a lot of room for improvement,” Vision Zero chairperson Y.C. Wu (吳宜蒨) said, adding that goal was to push the government to take the issue seriously.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Following a march on road safety in 2023, which drew tens of thousands of participants, it is evident that some local governments have paid more attention to the issue, Wu said, citing the release of the Taipei City Road Design Manual last month as an example.
“I hope other city and county governments will follow suit,” she said, adding that local governments tend to adopt their own approaches to road safety based on local conditions, with the implementation of pedestrian safety infrastructure often hindered by opposition from some people, due to the inconvenience it might cause.
Asked if Taiwan is still a “living hell for pedestrians,” as CNN said in an article in 2022, Wu said: “More or less.”
The more concrete description would be a “traffic hell,” Wu added.
“It is not just pedestrians — many road users, including drivers and motorcyclists, also get injured due to poor road design,” Wu said.
Viga Huang, one of the 50 event participants, said he became interested in road safety after a few accidents made him realize how Taiwan fails at handling the issue compared with other countries.
Taiwan’s road planning is centered around cars, which makes pedestrians “the vulnerable group” when navigating the streets, he said.
European countries have more pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, as they promote public transportation and walking over private car use, he added.
According to official data, 2,675 people, including 332 pedestrians, died in traffic accidents from January to November last year in Taiwan, out of a population of 23.4 million.
In comparison, data from the Hong Kong Police Force showed that the Chinese city — home to about 7.5 million people, roughly one-third of Taiwan’s population — recorded 96 traffic-related deaths in 2023, including 62 pedestrian fatalities.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
RSS