News
Highway Act amendment puts pedestrians first
Lawmakers have approved amendments to the Highway Act, which aims to put pedestrians first when it comes to transport design. The government says the move will make the roads more "people-friendly."
The amendment states that road design, construction, maintenance, and traffic engineering should all be undertaken with pedestrians in mind, in order to reduce traffic accidents. The bill also appoints the Ministry of Transport to establish safety standards.
Approval of the amendments comes after the cabinet proposed an action plan" in May to allocate NT$24.5 billion from this year through 2025 to improve "road quality."
It also raised the maximum fine in June for motorists failing to yield to pedestrians and introduced other improvement measures.
According to the government, the number of traffic accidents in the first eight months of this year stood at 268,330, an increase of 11.3% from last year while the number of traffic accident related deaths over the same period totalled 1,991 and that was a 0.9% year-on-year rise.
