TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Two women are facing fines for standing and chatting in the middle of a scooter left turn box (機車待轉區) in central Taiwan on Sunday (March 28).
On Sunday, a user of the Facebook group Street Detailing (路上觀察學院) posted a video showing two women chatting as they stroll down a crosswalk in Taichung City. They then suddenly swerve to the left and start standing in the middle of a scooter left turn box and continue their conversation.
Irritated, the owner of the video camera beeps from his scooter. The women suddenly turn back in shock, realize their blunder, and then finally finish crossing the street, fortunately before the light turned green.
In the caption above the photo, the scooter driver jokingly wrote from the women's perspective: "I'm telling you, the last time I stood here I wasn't ticketed, said Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy."
Starting in Taipei in 1985, and eventually spreading across the country, scooters or motorcycles under 250 cc have been banned from making direct left turns on roads with two or more lanes. Instead, scooter drivers must first drive ahead to the intersection to their right and make a "fishhook" maneuver in which they essentially drive in front of the crosswalk and then make a hard turn to the left into a special box designated for those wanting to make a left turn. Then they must wait for the green right before going straight into their originally desired direction.
Chang Chun-kai (張竣凱) deputy head of the Xitun District branch of the Taichung City Police Department's Sixth Precinct was cited by UDN as saying that according to traffic laws, pedestrians who fail to heed signs, markings, and police commands can face a fine of NT$300.
He said the location of the incident was the intersection of Qinghai Road and Henan Road in Taichung's Xitun District. Chang said that no public reports of the incident have been received thus far, but if one is, the perpetrators will be punished in accordance with the law.
