Road Work, Part VI

November 17, 2009 By: thenhbushman Category: Taiwan, Technology, Topography

Photos by MJ Klein

By the looks of things, this will probably be the last article on the recent makeover in our neighborhood. If anything else happens I’ll write another article about it and amend it to the series for your convenience.

The way these cars are parked illustrates how much easier it is to park your car for lunch at our local food outlets. Notice the road has been patched and all traces of the transformers that were in the road have now been cleared. This was done over the weekend but rain in our area prevented me from going out and getting photos.

We also got something we hadn’t bargained for: new traffic lights. Previously this was one of those blinking light intersections. It was basically mayhem as no one here understands that a blinking red light means stop and then go. This is a closeup of one of the new light poles.

This is how our intersection looks now, with 4 brand new traffic lights. They aren’t working yet, so without even the blinking lights (which have been removed) this intersection is a nightmare. Notice that there is a truck, scooter and car entering the intersection at the same time. The only law that matter now is the size law.

Thanks for reading this series. Please leave us your comments and ratings below!

Articles in series Road Work:

First in series Previous in series Next in series Last in series

Road Work, Part II
Photos by MJ Klein Well, as you can see, the rubble is gone now. So are any traces of the trees that once lined this street. Now I think ...
Road Work, Part III
Photos by MJ Klein More work has been done on the main road in our neighborhood. This is a shot from across the street from Shao-hui's r ...
Road Work, Part V
Photos by MJ Klein When Hui-chen and I got back from Kaohsiung on Monday afternoon, I noticed a new set of transformers on the new pad. The ol ...
Road Work, Part IV
Photos by MJ Klein This morning, the road crew was back, hard a work to fix up the road. I took a few shots from my 4th floor balcony and then ...
The Road Behind Our House, Part 2
Photos by MJ Klein Hui-chen and I just returned to Taiwan from vacation and found that some more work had been done on the road behind our hous ...

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11 Responses to “ Road Work, Part VI ”

# 1 MJ Klein Says:
November 17th, 2009 at 5:47 am
Road Work, Part VI | http://tinyurl.com/yke4rjn
# 2 andre Says:
November 17th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
glad the road is “wider” to drive on, but sucks that the trees are gone
.-= andre´s last blog ..ethan turns 3! =-.

thenhbushman reply on November 17th, 2009 11:27 pm:

Andre, yes, it does. i still don’t recognize the street when i turn down it.

Mitesh Damania reply on November 18th, 2009 2:53 am:
You can say the street got a haircut. Sometimes it’s hard to recognize people after their little trip to the barber.
.-= Mitesh Damania´s last blog ..How to get a full body workout from a treadmill =-.

thenhbushman reply on November 18th, 2009 11:22 am:

yeah Mitesh, i’ll say it got a haircut.
# 3 Mitesh Damania Says:
November 17th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
In India the person that honks first has the right of way through the intersection.
.-= Mitesh Damania´s last blog ..How to get a full body workout from a treadmill =-.

thenhbushman reply on November 17th, 2009 11:28 pm:

Mitesh, that only works here if the vehicle honking is a big truck!
# 4 Brunty Says:
November 19th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
MJ, traffic lights in Thailand are thought of as being pretty lights to look at while driving. I have never been in a country where people ignore red lights, amber lights.

I would love to know the death stats and also accident stats relating to red light runners. If there were stats they would be high.

Thais and common road safety sense in pretty well non existant. They belive the bigger the vehicle then they automatically have right of way.

Cars pull out on motorbikes all the time, I always let people know when they do this to me, nothing over the top but they know that I am pissed at them.

Policing is piss poor here in Isaan or North east Thailand. The police are pretty much a joke and only do traffic stops at certain times in teh same places again and again.

I have never seen a roving police patrol pulling over offending motorists on the spot. This doesn’t happen.

What is the policing of road rules like there in Taiwan? Is the driving etiquette of Taiwanese like Thai or better or worse?

It is good to see the upgrade is finished and for the better as in safety and also access to shops which will probably improve their turnover.
.-= Brunty´s last blog ..A Computer Idiot and Savoury Mince, Isaan Thailand. =-.

andre reply on November 20th, 2009 11:12 am:
brunty, i like referring to the roads and traffic in taiwan as “organized chaos”. sure it’s chaotic and mayhem for the most part, but somehow it all flows and works. taking into consideration the amount of cars, scooters, people, stray dogs, obstacles… the ratio of accidents is actually fairly low. well, now that i’ve said that, a 20 car pile up somewhere in taiwan will probably happen.
.-= andre´s last blog ..ethan turns 3! =-.

thenhbushman reply on November 20th, 2009 8:18 pm:

Andre, i like the “organized chaos” description you gave Brunty.

thenhbushman reply on November 20th, 2009 8:18 pm:

Brunty, Taiwan is better than Thailand in that most of the people do follow most of the rules. there is always some rogue guy in a car that will do something really stupid though. i’ve spent enough time in Thailand to comment on it and i never felt so “in danger” if you will from other drivers than i did in Thailand, as a bicyclist, motorcyclist and car driver. it seems sometimes that they just don’t care very much. thanks Brunty.