The Average Speed Enforcement (ASE) system has been implemented at the 4.7km-long Siaoma (小馬) section in Taitung and the 2km Shueilian (水璉) section of the Hualien-Taitung Coastal Highway (花東海岸公路) since Sept. 1.
This was in response to eight deaths and more than 70 injuries caused by car accidents within three years, all of which were due to speeding offenses at the Siaoma section and at the Shueilian section.
The highway is 168km long. I could have arrived at Hualien driving at a normal speed within three hours.
However, earlier this month, it took three-and-a-half hours to drive to Hualien to visit a friend on a weekday. More time was required not because I was a “Sunday driver,” but because I was afraid of being caught speeding.
In addition to many fixed and portable speed-measuring devices, the two new ASEs had me on tenterhooks while driving, as I was afraid of unintentionally committing wallet homicide.
Setting an ASE system at the Shueilian section has little effect on drivers, as the section is a mountain road and the ASE system there only covers 2km.
Nonetheless, the full length of ASEs at the Siaoma section is 4.7km with a speed limit of 50km per hour.
Therefore, passing through the section in 5 minutes, 37 seconds is breaking the law, resulting in the offending driver being fined NT$1,200. In my opinion, this seems to be “excessive law enforcement.”
With seven cars following behind, I turned on an app that can detect ASEs, but it kept sending speeding notifications instead, which resulted in me repeatedly applying the brakes.
The speed limit of 50kph is so slow that four of the drivers behind me lost patience and increased their speed, crossing the double yellow lines and cutting other drivers off. Comically, I found two of them pulled over before the terminal point, presumably so that they could pretend not to have arrived so quickly. I assume the other two ended up with tickets.
The Highway Bureau has continued to use “low speed limits” and “ASEs” as a method to decrease traffic accidents and casualty rates, with the belief that “slowness” equates safety.
However, this approach not only overlooks the traffic situation in different places, but also ignores drivers’ frustration with regards to “unreasonable speed limits,” which might tempt many to start speeding whenever they found a loophole, increasing the risk of accidents.
Although the Siaoma section is a meandering road, there are no residences or forks along it. Installing ASEs on a 4.7km stretch is unreasonable, not to mention the low traffic volume during normal hours, with traffic jams only occurring over long weekends.
Most drivers using this section would be the staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations, faculty members and government officials commuting from Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) to Changbin Township (長濱) for work.
The setting of an ASE system not merely troubled residents but also seemed to be a rip-off.
ASEs were meant to reduce illegal driving, but safe drivers have suffered from the “collective punishment.”
Consequently driving has become a strange and unusual punishment in itself.
Was the ASE installation implemented for the safety of public driving or just for the benefit of bureaucrats in comfortable offices with nothing better to do than devise a lazy policy from their simple mindsets?
Shiao Fu-song is a lecturer at National Taitung University.
Translated by Chien Yan-ru
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