There is a great disparity between the opinions of drivers and pedestrians over yielding behavior at intersections, the results of a poll commissioned by the New Power Party (NPP) showed.
More than 80 percent of drivers said that they yield to pedestrians, but 70 percent of pedestrians said they “rarely” or “very seldom” have drivers yield to them, the NPP said in a report on Monday.
The results reflect how unsafe people feel while walking in Taiwan compared with how drivers and scooter riders view their behavior on the road, NPP Chairwoman Claire Wang (王婉諭) told a news conference yesterday.
Photo: CNA
The creator of the Poem of Biker (通勤者之歌) YouTube channel, Evan Yang (楊博捷), told the news conference that the polar opposite opinions of drivers and pedestrians over yielding lies in the difference of perspective when drivers follow the “three stripes” guideline, which is that vehicles should allow pedestrians space equivalent to three stripes on a pedestrian crossing.
The distance is less than the length of some vehicles, and pedestrians often feel it is too close, Yang said.
Thirty percent of respondents said that the ideal would be for vehicles to maintain distance until pedestrians have finished crossing,” NPP member and Vision Zero convener Lin Po-hsun (林伯勛) said.
The poll showed that 24.37 percent of respondents believed drivers should be respectful of people who are still crossing when the green light for pedestrians ends.
More than 70 percent said that pedestrian safety should take priority even if it causes traffic to back up, Lin said.
The survey showed that more than 44.89 percent of people ride scooters or bicycles onto pedestrian areas to find parking, while 28.94 percent would never do so, Wang said.
Many scooter parking spots are on sidewalks and some walkways do not ban scooters entirely, which is the main reason that vehicles and pedestrians share space, she said, adding that the government should address the issue.
Taipei has the lowest rate of scooters on sidewalks in the country, likely due to policies to bar them from accessing walkways, she said.
The NPP commissioned Pearson Data Inc to conduct the poll, which distributed forms online from July 24 to Aug. 6.
The survey garnered 10,733 valid responses and has a margin of error of 0.95 percentage points and a confidence level of 95 percent.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS