The evidence
See it. Hear it. Judge for yourself.
Taiwan is the only country in the world that forces every vehicle over 3.5 tonnes to beep — loudly and continuously — every time it turns, reverses or stops. Day and night, outside our homes, schools and hospitals.
⚠ Synthesized demo at safe volume — turn your sound on
We are not against road safety. We are against a measure that is uniquely loud, demonstrably ineffective, and harmful to the people it claims to protect.
The alarm vehicles are required to emit is louder than Taiwan's own legal noise limits — louder than what is permitted on construction sites and cargo ships.
95 dB is comparable to a jet flying 100 m overhead. This is what plays outside bedroom windows — repeatedly, for minutes at a time.
Paediatricians warn that sustained exposure at this intensity can cause irreversible hearing damage in young children — who ride these buses every day.
Modern electric buses were designed to be silent. Taiwan is the only place that mandates strapping a continuous external alarm onto them. Japan, Korea, the United States, all of Europe — none require this.
Point by point — the alarm is redundant, indiscriminate, and replaceable with technology that already exists.
A bus in the left lane, with its left indicator flashing, is about to turn left. A 100 dB alarm to announce this adds nothing a driver or pedestrian cannot already see.
The alarm blares while a bus is stopped at a bus stop or waiting at a red light — moments when it is turning nowhere and the risk of hitting anyone is zero.
Small blue delivery trucks and UBike vans — barely larger than a car, with full mirror coverage — are forced to carry the same alarm. For what?
Vulnerable-road-user detection is standard on European buses. An alarm could sound only when a person is actually detected nearby — instead of constantly, at everyone.
194 countries protect pedestrians and cyclists without continuous beeping. If it were essential to safety, we would not be the only ones doing it.
Since the alarm was mandated on all vehicles over 3.5 tonnes, accidents have not fallen. People have simply learned to tune out a sound that never stops.
The real danger comes from scooters illegally overtaking on the right, misused indicators, and dangerous driving — none of which an alarm corrects.
It is louder than the WHO urban guideline and louder than legal workplace limits, yet it is aimed directly at residential windows, around the clock.
Before torturing residents with alarms, Taiwan has more effective, less harmful work to do. These are the root causes the beep is being used to paper over:
Scooters overtaking on the right — which is illegal — are the source of most close calls. Enforce the rule and they would not be there to be warned about.
Buses signal a turn, then drive straight for kilometres. Hazard lights are left on in normal traffic. When signals mean nothing, riders learn to ignore them.
Sidewalks are occupied by parked scooters, forcing students to walk in the road beside moving buses. That is the danger to fix first.
No safe following distance, speed limits ignored. Parents report having to run across crossings with children in their arms because a bus would not slow down.
We are calling on the Ministry of Transportation to review the continuous-beep mandate and adopt targeted detection technology instead. Add your name and, if you wish, your testimony.
My daughter's school is next to a bus stop. The alarm goes off every two minutes, all day. She cannot concentrate.
I work nights and sleep during the day. 110 dB outside my window at 7am — there is no recovering from that.
我住在路口旁的十五樓，嗶嗶聲還是清晰可聞。已經三年沒睡過一個完整的早晨。
I love Taiwan, but I had to move apartments twice because of this. No other country I've lived in does this.
連停在站牌、紅燈前都在叫。完全沒有轉彎，到底在警示誰？
Filmed the noise, a near-miss, or a quiet street abroad? Send it in. Approved clips appear in the evidence gallery.