It is a different set of rules while driving in Taiwan.
Remember that Taiwan roads, especially the local streets are designed for motorcycle(scooters) and walking pedestrians in mind. The streets are much narrower, and full of people.
I find myself driving slower while in Taiwan. But I feel more aggressive riding a motorcycle here.
In the USA when I ride a motorcycle I tend to be on the highest alert. Motorcycles is much rarer than cars in the US – many accidents happen because the drivers do not see or unaware of the presence of nearby motorcyclists.

It is just a different way of driving, different set of rules to follow.
for example – Taiwanese drivers are excellent at parking in tight small spaces.

1) Population X has a spread of behaviour about some average M.
2) The low end of the tail (6-sigma down from the average) is atrocious, an affront to man and nature.
3) The top end of the tail is quite reasonable (those are the ‘good drivers’ you find, now and then, in Taiwan).
4) The average, and 3-sigma either side of the average, compared to a benchmark sample of other populations, is significantly worse than one would expect.

But if we said it that way, our listeners would be asleep before we got to Number 3, right? So we just say “all X are bad”. Yes, it’s a generalisation. We don’t literally mean (in this case) that every single Taiwanese person is genetically incapable of driving. Simply that some unacceptably-high fraction are a menace on the roads. And the reason they are a menace on the roads is neatly illustrated by TaiwanPower. I’ve lived here for ten years and noticed this:

1) If you criticise Taiwanese driving, however tactfully, most Taiwanese present will not hear you talking about a particular behaviour that can be corrected, but an ad hominem attack on the entire culture and status of the Han people, it’s history, and their mothers, fathers, and pets – even if you try to stress that, generally, Taiwan is a wonderful place (which it is, IMHO).

2) Taiwanese people are hopeless at debate and formal logic (there we go – another generalisation). This is because the education system here is deliberately designed to destroy any latent skills people might have in that area. So TaiwanPower reasons that, because the law is not respected 100% of the time in other countries, it is acceptable and inevitable that Taiwanese people should not respect driving laws … which makes no sense on several different levels.

Essentially, TaiwanPower is saying that driving is inherently dangerous, people are going to get killed, so, duh, live with it; what ya gonna do? I’ve heard the same basic statement many times from different people. Here’s the deal, Taiwan:

-Yes, driving is inherently dangerous, just like operating a lathe, an aircraft, or a firearm.
-Therefore, you need to be trained how to do it properly, otherwise ‘inherently’ becomes ‘actually’ on a frequent basis.
-Some people will simply never be able to do it very well, and they should therefore not be allowed to.
-Those who are allowed to do it should be continually reminded that >80% of accidents are due to human error and are (theoretically) preventable.
-The corollary is that, when an accident occurs, it’s because somebody made a mistake. It is somebody’s fault.
-Other countries have reduced such mistakes to an acceptably low value and all Taiwan needs to do is copy what they did.

If Taiwan deliberately chooses, as a culture, not to do this, then Taiwanese people are jointly responsible for the intentional killing of innocent people. That is not an acceptable part of any culture I know of.

There is inadequite driver training here and law enforcment is very lax and almost nonexistant is some parts. Driving rules and standards are enforcable only through the justice system. Clearly the justice system here turns a blind eye in many cases.

This is an “me first” driving culture that does not generally view itself in terms of a community or social responsibility.

Obviously there are many Taiwanese who do try to follow the rules but the general tide seems to show a lack of courtesy when it comes to other drivers on the road.

Well sorry to say…..No way is RIGHT,and I do know your country as I have lived and worked here in Taiwan for 15 yrs.Plus I add to this fact I have lived in most of the big cities here and a lot of small towns.And as is the norm here in Taiwan,I see accidents each and everyday as I do travel a lot both by car and scooter,some minor and some major,plus some fatal as No way pointed out …I had never seen a fatal accident until coming to Taiwan,and I do come from a big city in the UK. And your point YES we do and everybody does have accidents in our home countries but just not on the scale of Taiwan.Example to be given………………………..
I was shocked to see this sign in Chi-yi it read as follows For the month of January 26 people were killed on Bay-gan Lu
So here we have ONE road with 26 fatalities.This was 19 more than the whole of my city back home.
As for people dying every second and not seeing it……this is not the topic here,it’s about Taiwanese being horrible drivers “WHICH THEY ARE” so come on my friend stop living in a bubble and think the roses are fine because they are not.
Meaning the world over needs to get its act together all we will be all visiting people in your line of work a lot sooner than we need to……….So what are we going to do?????????

“Standards are non existent here”?
Name a country where EVERY SINGLE CITIZEN obey their country’s law. Jesus…go back home and study some history…and Im very sure you’re going to find out that NO SINGLE country has ever successfully made their citizens follow every single law the country has created. Standards is something different to everyone, if you try to put your standards to someone else, he or she might feel fxxked up because it is not their standards.

Whom ever you are…don’t comment on other peoples country if you are not familiar with that country and its citizens

I’ve seen the driving tests, the driving schools, etc. There are many cultural factors that come into play, such as people not waiting for the green light (They’ll wait for the other side’s light to turn red), people turning left before the people going straight have gone through, etc. Those certainly are cultural factors, but the fact of the matter is, the population density here is higher than most places back home, hence you will see more horrible drivers more often. You will see more accidents more often.

So, yes, you see a lot of accidents, but every one of those those accidents, how many days have you gone by not seeing an accident at all? I’ve gone weeks, if not months, without seeing an accident and even gone several days with nobody passing me on the shoulder, cutting in front of me, etc. It’s all a matter of perspective. If you choose to focus on the negativity (“Taiwanese are all horrible drivers!”), that’s what you’ll see.