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
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry gives it a strategic advantage, but that advantage would be threatened as the US seeks to end Taiwan’s monopoly in the industry and as China grows more assertive, analysts said at a security dialogue last week. While the semiconductor industry is Taiwan’s “silicon shield,” its dominance has been seen by some in the US as “a monopoly,” South Korea’s Sungkyunkwan University academic Kwon Seok-joon said at an event held by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In addition, Taiwan lacks sufficient energy sources and is vulnerable to natural disasters and geopolitical threats from China, he said.
After reading the article by Hideki Nagayama [English version on same page] published in the Liberty Times (sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) on Wednesday, I decided to write this article in hopes of ever so slightly easing my depression. In August, I visited the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, Japan, to attend a seminar. While there, I had the chance to look at the museum’s collections. I felt extreme annoyance at seeing that the museum had classified Taiwanese indigenous peoples as part of China’s ethnic minorities. I kept thinking about how I could make this known, but after returning
What value does the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hold in Taiwan? One might say that it is to defend — or at the very least, maintain — truly “blue” qualities. To be truly “blue” — without impurities, rejecting any “red” influence — is to uphold the ideology consistent with that on which the Republic of China (ROC) was established. The KMT would likely not object to this notion. However, if the current generation of KMT political elites do not understand what it means to be “blue” — or even light blue — their knowledge and bravery are far too lacking
Taipei’s population is estimated to drop below 2.5 million by the end of this month — the only city among the nation’s six special municipalities that has more people moving out than moving in this year. A city that is classified as a special municipality can have three deputy mayors if it has a population of more than 2.5 million people, Article 55 of the Local Government Act (地方制度法) states. To counter the capital’s shrinking population, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) held a cross-departmental population policy committee meeting on Wednesday last week to discuss possible solutions. According to Taipei City Government data, Taipei’s