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🇹🇼 Taiwan /Economy & Trade

Taiwanese Parties Demand Full Allocation of Traffic Fines for Road Safety

From Liberty Times · () Chinese

Translated from Chinese, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

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  • A Taiwanese political group is demanding that six major cities allocate all traffic fine revenue to road safety improvements.
  • Currently, local governments only allocate 12% of fine revenue to traffic enforcement and safety, with the remainder used at their discretion.
  • The group argues that dedicated funding is necessary to reduce accidents and improve road conditions, especially for pedestrians.

A coalition of smaller Taiwanese political parties, led by the New Power Party, is urging the mayors and mayoral candidates of Taiwan's six major cities to commit to dedicating all traffic fine revenue exclusively to road safety initiatives. The group, "Taiwan Forward," held a press conference outside the Legislative Yuan to highlight the significant increase in traffic fines collected annually.

Traffic fine revenue is soaring, but casualty numbers are not falling! We ask the six major city mayors to promise dedicated use of traffic fine revenue to improve road safety.

— Taiwan ForwardThe core demand of the political group at their press conference.

According to "Taiwan Forward," the six major cities collect over 63 billion New Taiwan dollars (NTD) in traffic fines over a four-year period, averaging more than 15 billion NTD annually. Under current regulations, local governments are only required to allocate 12% of this revenue to traffic enforcement and road safety improvements. The remaining 88% can be used by local authorities for other purposes, leading critics to label it a "small treasury" for local governments.

Dedicated use of traffic fines does not require a referendum at all; the Legislative Yuan can require the Ministry of Transportation to amend the law now.

— Hsieh Min-hungNew Power Party Taipei candidate explaining the legal basis for their demand.

The group emphasizes that this dedicated funding is crucial for improving road safety, particularly for vulnerable road users like pedestrians. They point to statistics showing high numbers of traffic fatalities, including pedestrians, in cities like Taipei and New Taipei. For example, Taipei collected 11.7 billion NTD in traffic fines between 2022 and 2025, yet its budget for pedestrian infrastructure improvements remains comparatively low.

The fines are not used to improve road safety, but are a local government's discretionary slush fund.

— Hsieh Min-hungCriticizing the current allocation of traffic fine revenue.

"Taiwan Forward" argues that the reallocation of traffic fine revenue does not require a public referendum and can be implemented directly by city and county governments through amendments to local ordinances. They are calling on all mayoral candidates to publicly pledge their support for this policy, aiming to ensure that fine revenue directly contributes to safer roads rather than discretionary spending. The group seeks transparency, demanding that officials disclose how much revenue is collected and how it is spent on road safety each year.

For every 100 NT dollars in fines, only 6.7 dollars return to the road.

— Chen Wan-yuIllustrating the low proportion of fine revenue spent on road safety in New Taipei.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Liberty Times in Chinese. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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