Road and pedestrian safety advocacy groups today called for reform of Taiwan’s driving test and certification system, citing five key demands.
The system has long been dysfunctional and allows a large number of drivers with a lack of safety awareness onto the roads, the groups told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
Among their demands were including commercial and urban areas with pedestrians in the driving test and establishing a nationwide curriculum.
Photo: Huang Mei-chu, Taipei Times
The groups included the Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance and the Taiwan Traffic Safe Association, with Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Yue-chin (林月琴) and Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Liu Shu-pin (劉書彬) also in attendance.
They urged the government to continue working toward the vision of zero traffic deaths so it does not become an “empty slogan” and seriously address the shortcomings of driver education.
Their first demand was to incorporate busy commercial and urban roads into training routes and driving tests to simulate realistic interactions with pedestrians, phasing out overly simplified off-site testing routes.
This would allow new drivers to learn in real environments how to yield to pedestrians and share the road with all users, they said.
They then called for a nationwide driving curriculum in line with international practices, and speed differentiation training to ensure safety for young people on the roads.
The groups also recommended increased oversight of driving schools to ensure that new drivers reach the legally mandated minimum hours of on-road training before taking the test.
Further, they asked for retraining of all citizens regardless of age, while performing assessments to identify high-risk drivers and providing re-education programs.
Finally, they said they hope that the government would gradually incorporate demands from previous civil group consensus documents.
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