With traffic being a mess in Taipei, traffic directors are dispatched all over the city at busy intersections to help the flow of traffic. By "help" i mean "just get in the way and actually do nothing and nobody has any idea why they are actually there."
This is because while may 20% of them are actual police officers, most of them are just older volunteers. Because they have no authority, nobody ever follows their instructions or even listens to them. In fact they never really pay any attention to the police officers either as there are just too many cars/scooters that the police officer can't really take the time out to stop just one driver and give him a ticket.
The only people who get any respect are the ones above. These are students from a local high school. Every morning and evening they are out in the intersections around the school and they are very strictly listened to. Possibly because they are kids, but most likely because there are large groups of them, never just one person out on their own.
Meaning if you want to get the Taipei traffic under control, but large groups of children in the middle of the street during rush hour. There's no way that could go wrong.
