2.3.1 Vehicle ownership
There were about 22.3 million vehicles and 23.3 million persons registered in Taiwan in 2012 which means that the vehicle ownership rate was 958 vehicles per 1,000 persons. Even if the official figure was overestimated due to imperfect removal of scrapped vehicles from the registration system, it would still be higher compared with other both developing and developed countries. The vehicle ownership rate per 1,000 persons including two- and three-wheelers was 834 in the United States, 711 in Malaysia, 710 in Japan, 642 in Norway, 629 in Canada, 567 in United Kingdom, 409 in South Korea and 378 in Vietnam (World Health Organization, 2013).
Excluding two- and three-wheelers, 312 registered vehicles per 1,000 persons ranked Taiwan below other developed countries. The vehicle ownership rate excluding motorcycles per 1,000 persons was 797 in the United States, 607 in Canada, 591 in Japan, 583 in Norway, 519 in the United Kingdom, 363 in South Korea, 361 in Malaysia and only 20 in Vietnam (World Bank, 2013b).
As seen from these figures, the vehicle ownership rate in Taiwan is very high when including motorcycles. This situation is quite unique and presents a challenge especially for Taiwanese policymakers who have to cope with it by designing and maintaining appropriate set of policies and laws.
2.3.2 Vehicle composition
Vehicle composition is also an important determinant which differentiates countries and regions.
Although Taiwan belongs to a high-income group of countries (annual disposable income per capita in 2012 was about 17,700 USD which exceeds 12,276 USD, a criterion used by the World Bank) its vehicle structure shares many similarities with middle-income countries which are defined as nations with income per capita between 1,006 and 12,175 USD.
Figure 10 International comparison of vehicle compositions
Source: Directorate General of Highways, MOTC (2013), World Health Organization (2013), Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (2013)
The share of motorcycles is much higher in Taiwan than in other developed countries, almost 68% of all registered vehicles are motorcycles and only 27% are automobiles. This proportion is relatively similar in Malaysia where the vehicle fleet consists of 45% cars and 47% two- and three-wheelers. A different situation is in Japan and South Korea where cars comprise 66-69%
and two-wheelers 9-14% of all vehicles. Countries with higher national income follow a slightly different pattern; there are about 86-93% cars and 3-10% motorcycles registered in Norway, United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. On the other hand, automobiles in Vietnam make up less than 2% while two- and three-wheelers over 96% of all vehicles registered. It can be concluded that in high income countries the share of automobiles to motorcycles is significantly higher than in middle and low income countries23.
2.3.3 Fatalities
It is reasonable to compare traffic fatality rates of Taiwan with other countries. The number of traffic fatalities can be converted to a relative variable; there are three frequently used indicators which make direct comparisons possible:
FATALITIES PER BILLION VEHICLE-KILOMETERS is the most objective indicator to
23 For more details see Appendix 12 Vehicle compositions in different countries.
0%
describe risk on the road network, only a limited number of countries, however, collects data on distance travelled.
FATALITIES PER 10,000 REGISTERED VEHICLES are limited as they only allow comparison of countries with similar traffic characteristics. This measure also requires reliable statistics on the number of vehicles. In some countries, scrapped vehicles are not systematically removed from the database and, thereby, undermine the accuracy. This indicator also omits non-motorized vehicles which in some countries represent a large part of the vehicle fleet.
FATALITIES PER 100,000 HEAD OF POPULATION is the denominator commonly used, as the figure is available in most countries. It also enables comparison with other causes of injury and death, like heart disease, HIV/AIDS, etc. As the health and transport sectors increase their level of co-operation, fatalities per 100,000 population is becoming widely used as the standard indicator (International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group, OECD, 2013).
An important step in international comparison is to homogenization of the time period over which fatalities are measured. International standard used by the World Health Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and other international organizations includes all causalities occurring within 30 days of an accident. The National Police Agency in Taiwan records fatalities which occur within 24 hours of an accident which is causing significant underestimation whereas the Ministry of Health and Welfare includes all accidents with no time restrains which leads to over-rated statistics unsuitable for international comparison as well. In Taiwan, 30-days fatalities are estimated by the Institute of Transportation, MOTC which is linking police-reported fatalities with death certificate data in medical systems to identify injury victims who died within 30 days. These adjusted figures are suitable for international comparison24.
24 See more details in Appendix 3 Fatalities, accidents and injuries.
Figure 11 International comparison of fatalities between 1999 and 2011
Source: International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group, OECD (2013), World Bank (2013c), Ministry of Transport New Zealand (2010), Royal Malaysian Police (2013), Traffic Police Singapore (2013)
Figure 11 indicates that 30-days fatality rate increased from 16.4 in 2003 to 19.3 in 2006 but subsequently reduced to 14.3 in 2011. The rate is lower than the world’s average which is 18 causalities per 100,000 population and also lower than average in South-East Asia and Americas where it reached 18.5 and 16.1, respectively. However, Taiwan is outperformed by European region where the rate is only 10.8. Traffic fatality rate in Taiwan is three times higher than in countries with the best performance like Norway, United Kingdom, Japan or Singapore with less than 5 fatalities per 100,000 population. In spite of reduction in fatalities in recent years, Taiwan still has much to improve, especially in areas regarding motorcycle use, elderly road users, and accidents caused by drunk driving.
According to the World Health Organization (2013), half of the world’s road traffic deaths occur among “vulnerable road users”, i.e., motorcyclists (23%), pedestrians (22%), and cyclists (5%), while 31% of deaths happen to car occupants and the remaining 19% to unspecified road users.
The total share of vulnerable road users is similar in Taiwan where they make up 53% of all road causalities; the share of individual means of transport is, nevertheless, different from WHO data; motorcyclists, pedestrians and cyclists represent 46%, 4% and 3%, respectively.
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1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Fatalities per 100,000 persons
Figure 12 International comparison of fatalities by mode of transport
Source: World Health Organization (2013), National Police Agency, MOI (2013c)
The proportion of motorcycle causalities in Taiwan is high not only compared with the world’s average but also with most other countries including Vietnam where powered two-wheelers comprise more than 96% of total vehicles. This observation suggests that there is room for improvement and motorcycle fatalities can be further reduced. The percentage of pedestrian fatalities is very low compared with most other countries. Car fatalities comprise 35% of all fatalities in Taiwan, their share is similar to United Kingdom or Japan where they account for 33% and 31% of fatalities, respectively.