Taiwan Road Safety Dummies 1 (台灣的工程用假人一號)

台灣的工程用假人一號

June 16, 2016

Road safety dummies are a distinctive feature of the streets of Taiwan. In Chinese they are generally known as engineering dummies (工程用假人), warning dummies (警示假人), or, more formally, electric flag-bearers (電動旗手). According to law these robotic figures must be setup at all roadside construction sites to provide some measure of protection for workers as well as warn passing motorists and pedestrians of potential hazards. When hooked up to a car battery their stubby arms pump up and down, waving flags and other objects to direct traffic. Construction companies typically decorate these dummies with safety vests and hardhats, though it is not common for workers to express some creativity and personalize their dummies. Some of them even have individual names and histories! The rest of this post features photographs of some of the many road safety dummies I have encountered over the years.

A warning dummy hard at work on the streets of rural Changhua.

Working hard, or hardly working? This guy was lost in a reverie, gazing out over the rice paddies of Taoyuan.

This grim purple-faced warning dummy blocks part of a busy street in downtown Taipei.

A distinctive dummy working the streets of Taipei. You’ll see him again later on.

Working on the dangerous Suhua Highway. Here you can see the car battery that powers the dummy’s arms. This team has also gone to the trouble of adding rubber boots to the ensemble.

An unusual sight while riding through the backroads of eastern Tainan. Would you confuse this fluorescent apparition for an actual human being? Let’s take a closer look…

Worry lines criss-cross the face of this warning dummy in Taipei.

Face mask and safety goggles adorn this serious-looking warning dummy in downtown Taichung.

An orange-faced dummy directing traffic in Taipei. Any resemblance to current American presidential candidates is entirely accidental.

This dummy is dressed up like a police officer to direct pedestrians in the tourist town of Checheng in Nantou.

An impostor! This gas station has hacked together something that vaguely resembles the others… but there’s something not quite right about it.

Another dummy on the country roads of Changhua.

This dummy oversees roadwork on the scenic east coast of Taitung.

For more about Taiwanese road safety dummies I highly recommend checking out this story and accompanying gallery on Facebook by Edd Jhong (鐘聖雄). This article also offers an interesting take on this under-appreciated aspect of Taiwanese culture.