Institute of Transportation, MOTC

• Date：2015-12-11
• Update：2019-10-29
• Department：IOT

　　The IOT (Institute of Transportation, MOTC) introduced a new arrow marking in this year's study, cooperated with the local government, and painted the arrows on shared straight-through/right-turn lanes which approach to an intersection. The arrows show that “vehicles turning right should keep right in the lane, and vehicles that are going straight should keep left in the lane.” It will help to prevent side collisions which occur at the intersections.

　　During 2014, 46.7% of traffic accidents in Taiwan were side collisions, which were caused by vehicles that were going straight ahead colliding with vehicles turning right/left. 62,179 side collisions which involved motorcycles occurred, 233 motorcycle riders’ lives were lost, and 82,024 people were injured. “Motorcycle riders are used to steering on the right side of the road.” said professor Hsu, the leader of the research; “Near the intersection, the riders found that there were many cars which wanted to turn right on their left side. The riders have to reduce their speed and find a gap away from the cars turning right, so that they could go through the gap and across the intersection safely. If no one reduced their speed, a side collision would occur.”

　　For the field verification, the new arrow marking was painted in Taichung (7 intersections) and Kaohsiung (1 intersection). After painting the new arrows, 80% of the participants in an interview were aware of what it means and comply with it. The distance between the going straight motorcycles going straight and the right edge of the road would increase by 21% on average. The distance between the cars turning right and the right edge of the road would decrease by 10% on average.