Traffic rules need to change
New rules concerning traffic penalty points and fines have caused resentment among some members of the public because of the rules’ lack of consideration for Taiwan’s physical and cultural conditions and the characteristics of its roads. These ice-cold penalty rules, fixated on the law without reasonable leeway, are quite disappointing.
Take, for example, the most common traffic infringement in Taiwan, namely temporary parking or waiting at red lines. There are so many reasons why drivers need to stop at the roadside, such as for elderly, weak, sick or disabled people, pregnant women and young children to get in and out of cars, and for moving large and heavy goods, and loading and unloading items. Tour buses need to stop somewhere, as do utility vehicles such as those used for plumbing, electrical work, postal delivery and garbage disposal. Parking at red lines is clearly a big problem that needs to be solved. When police officers arrive on the scene, they take people’s reasonable needs into account as well as the letter of the law.
However, there are some people who often take photos of illegally parked vehicles so they can get a reward for reporting them, and when this happens, a vehicle owner is fined directly with no concern for the lack of any alternative. It came as no surprise, therefore, when a large number of professional drivers, such as taxi and delivery drivers, protested by surrounding the Ministry of Transport and Communications on Oct. 31.
It was good to hear the Minister of Transport and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) took note of public opinion and ordered that wherever red-line zones are established, 10 percent of the roadside should be marked with yellow lines allowing temporary parking. This move should make life less inconvenient for the public, which is laudable, but it would be better if the authorities could at the same time announce a reduction in the amount of penalty points doled out for such traffic infringements.
This could be coupled with announcing the following measures to be implemented all over Taiwan: In the middle of every stretch of red-lined road there should be a temporary-parking area where all sorts of vehicles can park for up to one hour. Paired with high-tech law enforcement, this would make it convenient for passenger cars, trucks, vans, tour buses, garbage trucks and other utility vehicles to park temporarily.
Such an instruction would signal to the public and government agencies all over Taiwan that wherever they are, there will be a standardized parking place in the central part of red-line road sections for loading and unloading. This would reduce the amount of loading and unloading at crossroads and greatly reduce the occurrence of red-line infringements.
The efficient flow of people and goods is a definite indicator of a country’s progress. Civil servants responsible for traffic planning should spend more time out of their offices to get real-world experience of the traffic problems faced by people driving all kinds of vehicles. They could then come up with traffic rules, plans and solutions that suit the real-world conditions and ensure the safety and free flow of people and goods.
Hsu Yu-min
Taipei
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
RSS