Councilors approve: Central city government embellishes numbers but fails to improve traffic risks

Taichung has repeatedly reported "pedestrian hell" incidents in recent years. In 2024, a female college student surnamed Lin and a senior student surnamed Wang from Tunghai University were hit by a passenger train while crossing a pedestrian crossing. Lin was also run over by a driver twice and died. In September this year, a Singaporean woman surnamed Chen was also hit and killed by a passenger train while crossing a pedestrian crossing. The day before yesterday, a woman surnamed Hong was hit and killed. Chen Shuhua, a Taichung City Councilor from the Democratic Progressive Party, criticized that the city government only focused on glorifying political achievements with cold numbers and did not really improve risk factors such as software and hardware.

The driver surnamed Shi of Juye Passenger Transport was driving a bus in the evening of September last year when he hit a female college student surnamed Lin and a senior student surnamed Wang from Tunghai University who were walking on a zebra crossing on Luchuan East Street in Taichung City. After Shi Nan got off the bus, he got on the bus and moved the bus forward. As a result, Lin Lin was run over twice and died.

In addition, at noon on September 16 this year, a 67-year-old Singaporean woman surnamed Chen came to Taiwan for a free trip with her family. They were passing by the intersection of Ziye Road and Minsheng Road in the West District of Taichung City. The family walked on a zebra crossing to cross the road. The slower Chen woman was walking at the end, but she was hit by the Kuo-Kuang Passenger Transport that was turning right. Mrs. Chen was knocked down and rolled over. She was rescued and sent to the hospital, where she died two days later. Unexpectedly, just over a month later, another woman surnamed Hong was hit and killed on a zebra crossing in Taichung.

There have been a series of cases of pedestrians being hit and killed while walking on zebra crossings in Taichung. Taichung City Councilor Chen Shuhua said that the same regrets happen again and again, but the city government only pays attention to the superficial efforts to beautify political achievements with cold numbers, rather than truly improving the intersection software and hardware and other risk factors. She suggested that the intersections should be redesigned and improved according to local conditions, including retracting the crossing lines and installing pedestrian crossing lighting. In addition, education on driving habits of drivers should also be strengthened, and the concept of giving way to pedestrians should be implemented from school.

The Taichung City Government stated that it continues to enhance pedestrian safety through engineering improvements and law enforcement. By the end of October this year, the city had built a total of 1,075 pedestrian green lights with early opening and dedicated phases, 1,036 green zebra spots, 382 pedestrian shelter islands, 288 crossing setbacks and 103 pedestrian crossing lighting spots to reduce the risk of intersections between pedestrians and vehicles. According to traffic accident statistics from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications from January to August 2026, the number of pedestrian deaths in Taichung City within 30 days was 18, a significant decrease from the same period last year, ranking second among the six cities, showing that pedestrian traffic safety measures are gradually showing effectiveness.