TAIPEI (TVBS News) — The Vision Zero pedestrian safety advocacy group on Monday (Feb. 5) urged Taiwan's new congress to support a draft pedestrian traffic safety facilities law.
The advocacy group presented four major recommendations: comprehensive implementation of sidewalks, removal of sidewalk obstacles, standardization of temporary sidewalks during construction periods, and explicit arcade project guidelines.
The draft Pedestrian Traffic Safety Facilities law must be proposed by the National Land Management Agency under the Ministry of the Interior. Once approved by the executive branch, the law is sent to the Legislative Yuan for review.
Vision Zero pointed out that the basic road traffic safety law passed its third reading in 2023. However, the outcome is still unsatisfactory with a projected death toll possibly exceeding 3,000.
Vision Zero chairman Chen Kai-ning suggested four amendments to the law. These include providing physical sidewalks on roads wider than 8 meters, marking sidewalk designations on roads less than 8 meters wide, establishing basic sidewalk standards and non-permissible uses, and installing physical sidewalks beside arcades.
Between January and November 2023, the number of road fatalities in Taiwan reached 2,759, and there were 367,311 recorded severe accidents. This represents an increase of 28,897 incidents compared to the same period in 2022.