We desperately, desperately need these in Taiwan. My friend was nearly killed a few days ago when a car bounced up off the road and smashed into a pillar less than a meter away from him. If he had walked a tiny percentage faster, he'd have been between the car and the pillar.
Take a look at the southwest corner of this intersection: https://www.google.com/maps/@25.0409405,121.5642396,3a,75y,2... or the northeast corner of same. Cars and scooters come flying out of that tunnel from the south at 40, 50km/h. If they happen to merge wrong and bump into a scooter, you've got a missile flying directly at a corner that often has nearly 50 people standing on it, with not even a curb to redirect it.
I would say at minimum 50% of intersections in Taipei have no protection whatsoever for waiting pedestrians.
I love Taipei and we have good public transit, but being a pedestrian here is often a fucking nightmare. Lord FORBID you try walking in the south by the way. Gaoxiong drivers are drunk 80% of the time and don't give a fuck.
I LOVE the cone strategy in this article. I've been thinking of direct actions I can take to improve pedestrian safety and this looks like a great thing to do. Since I'm white and an immigrant I get a lot of leeway in Taiwan which I can leverage to do all sorts of things like this, since the cops are really hesitant to mess with people like me. A powerful privilege I can use for good.
Take a look at the southwest corner of this intersection: https://www.google.com/maps/@25.0409405,121.5642396,3a,75y,2... or the northeast corner of same. Cars and scooters come flying out of that tunnel from the south at 40, 50km/h. If they happen to merge wrong and bump into a scooter, you've got a missile flying directly at a corner that often has nearly 50 people standing on it, with not even a curb to redirect it.
I would say at minimum 50% of intersections in Taipei have no protection whatsoever for waiting pedestrians.
I love Taipei and we have good public transit, but being a pedestrian here is often a fucking nightmare. Lord FORBID you try walking in the south by the way. Gaoxiong drivers are drunk 80% of the time and don't give a fuck.
If you're in Taiwan and care about this, check out the vision 0 people https://www.visionzero.tw/ https://www.facebook.com/VisionZeroTW?refsrc=deprecated&_rdr There's a "ride of silence" ride coming up for murdered bicycle riders if you'd like an event.
I LOVE the cone strategy in this article. I've been thinking of direct actions I can take to improve pedestrian safety and this looks like a great thing to do. Since I'm white and an immigrant I get a lot of leeway in Taiwan which I can leverage to do all sorts of things like this, since the cops are really hesitant to mess with people like me. A powerful privilege I can use for good.