Cops don't like to take sides, they usually say both parties are at fault.

Drive slowly, drive defensively, assume everyone else can't drive, and make sure you have a license and insurance or you will have little chance of winning a case even if the person was drunk and driving the wrong way on the street.

There are plenty of laws and legislation in place. They are just not enforced because the police force is a joke. I have lost count of the number of times I have seen police sitting at a red light and done nothing as cars and scooters blew through it. Nothing is going to change. You just eventually accept that Taiwan is broken. Or don't and drive yourself insane.

When I worked in the clubs, I used to watch detectives get pissed drunk with known gangsters weekly. They would then drive home while barely being able to walk out of the club on their own.

Yo guys it is like it was deja vu today i was cut off by a car turning right with nop signal lights on. she kept inching her car to the right and vopila 3cotters went nipples north. she jumped out of the car and got veryh aggressive with the victims tellikng them they should not have been there. Her signal lights were not on. I just dont understand why the public let alonhe the police dont do something. I sense everyone on a scooter is at risk.

I think I have a copy of Tainan's Traffic Laws somewhere.... on the back of a cigarette paper!

I don't know whether to laugh or despair, but it's definitely one of the biggest 'negatives' of Tainan (for me too). I've seen crash and burn cars, mangled scooters, puddles of blood on the road, and heard the story of a family with a grandparent on both sides killed (just while walking) by scooters! These days I tend to look at it like a low budget version of Tron, but with a cast of thousands...

The other big negative being my neighbour, who keeps me awake till about 6am every morning, yelling into Skype with the speakers full up and blasting the TV. I had one hour sleep last night... so I thought I'd have a good moan about it here... before going out to face the traffic!:)

My daughter, who was born and raised in Tainan,
who had lived in Taipei for three years complained about the same wild Tainan traffic after she moved back to Tainan, before taking of for Germany. She said something like that, in Tainan you can't trust people to stop at a red traffic light, in Taipei there is everywhere police and they write tickets, even when cross on foot the crosswalks a bit to late.
It is surely a Tainan phenomena.

Yea, my friends from Taipei are terrified of driving in Tainan. Actually, even my friends in Kaoshiung say Tainan is insane.
It all comes down to the cops. If they enforced the laws, it would be so much better but as it is, no one is scared of the repercussions of driving like an asshole here.

Creasy Tainan, don't we love it!

I think it is funny how we hate the cops back home because they harass us all the time; and we hate them here because they don't… What's a cop to do?

"I think it is funny how we hate the cops back home because they harass us all the time; and we hate them here because they don't… What's a cop to do?"

Yup. It may be a matter of wanting something in-between strict and loose, or it may be that people are realizing for the first time the ramifications of looser restraints. I'm betting, though, it just points to how hypocritical we all are. I want to drive however I want, but you others need to follow the rules.

Welcome to Tainan, where indicating before turning is an option rarely chosen by the natives. Cars and scooters here really don't need indicators. I guess you just read the vehicles body language or something for clues as to what it's going to do! I've seen many people indicate 2 seconds into a turn and a fair few get it all wrong and indicate left, then turn right. People here have no concept of indicating. Then there are the cars that edge out into oncoming traffic and the cars that edge passed red lights, ever so slowly, as if it's going to give them some sort of advantage that they evidently can't go without. Then there's the scooter drivers who turn right 100% of the time at red lights and the teens on scooters who just flat out suck, as do the traffic enforcement/ police. I find driving defensively is more dangerous. I would rather be the guy driving quite fast and seeing what's ahead, than the guy driving slowly in the gauntlet and being over-taken by the crazies. Good luck out there. I quickly adapted to the mayhem, I think when I drive elsewhere I'll have picked up some bad habits!

Bri

Tainan: CITY OF CREATIVE DRIVING.....Don't forget the dogs and cats that add congestion to the already too narrow and streets in which any existing sidewalk serves as a place of business or a parking place forcing pedestrians out into the traffic!

Tainan'n'Around