Taipei (Act Daily News) — It’s been practically two months since Taiwan lifted its entry restrictions and ended necessary quarantine, permitting most worldwide vacationers to go to the island.
The authorities has since vowed to spice up its tourism choices and appeal to 10 million worldwide guests by 2025 after dropping out on vacationer income amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
But in an effort to lure and retain worldwide vacationers, critics say Taiwan should first enhance its street security — for drivers and pedestrians alike.
The island could also be famend for its delicacies, pure surroundings and hospitality — however it’s also infamous for its harmful roads. Multiple nations, together with Australia, Canada, Japan and the US, have particularly known as out Taiwan’s street circumstances.
Danger on the street
Returning to his native Taiwan after a stint residing in Melbourne, Australia, Ray Yang, the web page’s founder, mentioned the reverse cultural shock of “nearly getting run over” by motorists prompted him to begin the web page.
“Cities in Taiwan share a major issue — a lack of pavements and consistent walkways for pedestrians,” Yang advised Act Daily News Travel.
Moreover, some pedestrian pavements are a patchwork of patios — identified in Taiwan as qilou — constructed from totally different surfaces and heights, adversely impacting their walkability.
Parents with infants and small youngsters typically have to hold the strollers by hand as they make their manner by, whereas wheelchair customers are pressured to zigzag out and in of automotive lanes and the walkways that are at occasions obstructed.
Pedestrians typically need to battle for his or her proper of manner with cyclists and motorcar drivers as they cross the street or stroll on pavements, Yang added.
“In Taiwan, there is a common saying that the characteristic friendliness of Taiwanese people vanishes as soon as they get behind the steering wheel,” says Professor Cheng Tsu-Jui of Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University.
Maestro Wu Bombshell Steel Knives is a retailer in Kinmen, Taiwan
According to the numbers
Last 12 months, 2,962 folks misplaced their lives to visitors incidents in Taiwan, which interprets to 12.67 deaths per 100,000 people.
That’s roughly six occasions greater than Japan and 5 occasions greater than the UK.
Local Taiwanese media have coined the time period “traffic war” to explain the island’s “battlefield-like” visitors circumstances and excessive variety of street fatalities.
Taiwan’s roads being unfriendly to pedestrians is a by-product of a bigger downside, in accordance with Charles Lin, the manager vp of Taiwan Traffic Safety Association, an advocacy group that has been campaigning for safer roads.
The crux of Taiwan’s street issues of safety, he says, primarily lies within the lack of up to date street engineering and design experience, street design tips which can be “unclear” and solely “exist on paper” as they’re “selectively implemented,” and a “car-centered” planning that prioritizes non-public autos over public transportation, cyclists and pedestrians.
As Taiwan started modernizing its roads within the Nineteen Sixties, it referenced street design tips from the US, which largely prioritized vehicles over folks. However, as different nations started to include the wants of weak customers — specifically pedestrians and cyclists — into their street designs, Taiwan fell behind.
It additionally would not assist that in Taiwan, a myriad of presidency businesses have jurisdiction over the development and administration of roads complicate division of obligations and bogs down efforts to push for change.
In addition to security issues and the absence of pedestrian-friendly walkways, Taiwan’s lack of public transportation and will additionally restrict the event of tourism past the key hubs on the island.
“Public transportation can be appalling outside of the Greater Taipei metropolitan area — even non-existent in some rural areas,” says Cheng. “It is not at the level of turn-up-and-go.”
How to repair it
For years, the Taiwanese authorities has been conscious of the island’s street issues of safety, and has tried to handle it primarily by public campaigns on fastening seatbelts and sporting helmets, plus crackdowns on drunk driving.
It has additionally issued handbooks on the most recent street design finest practices and has established makeshift sidewalks, in addition to improved street designs in some areas.
But specialists have mentioned the federal government’s “typical” response has been resorting to extra policing and including on extra visitors lights and velocity cameras — even in areas the place “it doesn’t make sense” to put in them — “piecemeal” methods that aren’t essentially efficient, in accordance with Lin.
“We rely on enforcement too much,” says Lin. “The focus should be on designing better road infrastructure and enhancing drivers’ education.”
Huang Yun-Gui, the manager secretary of Taiwan’s National Road Traffic Safety Commission, advised Act Daily News Travel that “there is much more work to do in improving Taiwan’s road safety, and the government is working towards the ultimate goal of zero road fatalities.”
Scooter visitors in Taipei picture by way of Getty Images