Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
語言:
English
Photo Credit: Brian Hioe
TENS OF THOUSANDS demonstrated on Ketagalan Boulevard today to call attention to the issue of pedestrian safety in Taiwan. The rally took place despite thunderstorms in the afternoon and rain. According to organizers, there were 50,000 participants, who were called on to wear white for the event.
Taiwan’s issues with traffic safety have increasingly been discussed in recent years. This is the case particularly after international media reporting on the subject, leading Taiwan to be referred to as “pedestrian hell”.
Photo credit: Brian Hioe
As such, there have increasingly been calls for Taiwan to take action, to ensure the rights of pedestrians. It has been noted that traffic culture in Taiwan prioritizes the right of way for cars, which can be dangerous to pedestrian safety. This occurs even as Taiwan has otherwise been lauded for other aspects of its transportation infrastructure, such as public transport with metro systems or bike-sharing systems.
Recent changes in laws regarding pedestrian safety include stiffening punishments for drivers that fail to yield to pedestrians. Drivers are further required to maintain a distance of three meters from pedestrians on crosswalks. Members of the public have also been called on to report drivers that do not yield to pedestrians.
Today’s rally began with civil society groups tabling on Ketagalan Boulevard at 1 PM. The rally formally started shortly before 3 PM, while a protest march set off after 4 PM.
Photo credit: Brian Hioe
A number of third parties were present at the fair set up for tabling. This included the NPP, TPP, TSP, Green Party, Taiwan Renovation Party, and Obasan Alliance. The DPP notably also had a stall, though the KMT did not. Civil society groups present included the Citizens of the Earth Taiwan, Taiwan Labour Front, International Socialist Tendency, and others.
The main organizer of the rally was Vision Zero Taiwan. The name of the organization comes from its vision of Taiwan not seeing traffic pedestrian deaths by 2050. A number of traffic safety organizations were also organizers, including Walkable Taiwan, and the Taiwan Motorcycle Riders Association. The rally also demanded improvements to pedestrian infrastructure and driver education in Taiwan, apart from just legal changes.
The keynote speaker was the father of a three-year-old child who was killed in Tainan in May, also injuring the mother, after a car making a left turn plowed into them. The death was one of the major incidents that led to calls for improving traffic safety in Taiwan. Just yesterday, another death resulted from a New Taipei bus that did not yield to an 82-year-old man who was crossing the street. It is disproportionately children and the elderly who are victims of traffic accidents in Taiwan. Deaths in Taiwan occur from not only cars, but also buses and scooters.
Photo credit: Brian Hioe
The issue is ostensibly a bipartisan one, with both major political camps in Taiwan having expressed support for improving traffic safety in Taiwan. DPP presidential candidate William Lai, KMT presidential candidate Hou You-yi, and TPP presidential candidate Ko Wen-je all visited the rally to give speeches. Foxconn founder Terry Gou, who has been hinting at a presidential run, but not formally announced one, was also present. Given the presence of all of the presidential candidates, there is a way in which the rally proved to be the second major political rally of the campaign season after a rally focused on housing rights and judicial reform organized by former NPP chair Huang Kuo-chang and political streamer Holger Chen.
To this extent, much of the framing for the rally was in connection to the upcoming election, with speakers calling on whichever political party took the presidency and became the ruling party in the legislature to take action on traffic safety.
Photo credit: Brian Hioe
It is to be seen if pedestrian safety becomes one of the major domestic campaign issues of the election. Certainly, it is to be expected that all candidates will make promises to the effect of seeking to improve pedestrian safety.
But it is unlikely that there will be changes to traffic safety in Taiwan simply through stiffening punishments for driver violations, without a change in traffic culture. As such, that a rally about traffic safety could bring tens of thousands to the streets of Taipei is already indicative of shifts in society calling for improvements in traffic safety.