Am I the only one that feels the driving is not bad? I mean besides a lot of scooters it’s really not that bad compared to other places. I at least feel drivers here can drive and if you mean “bad” drivers being they don’t always follow the rules and speed, sure. But i’ve never felt in my entire time here in anyone’s car that they were actual bad drivers, meaning they are incompetent actually driving the car. I’ve often felt people were bad drivers in peoples car in the US…they may follow the rules, but I feared for my life in their inability to actually drive the car and how frequently they fuck up by mistake. Many US drivers could not cut it in taipei, they probably can’t get out the parking lots here…
Pretty sure they all wear T shirts that say GANGSTER
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You’re not alone. I feel the same way. I always tell (ABC) friends from the states that if you think the people here don’t know how to drive, that means you, from the states, can drive. You take the wheel. Every time I’ve suggested it, they’ve declined.
How I see it is, those who can’t drive in Taiwan, don’t drive. They don’t need to. However, those in the states who really lack the ability to drive, still have to drive because that’s just how it is.
It’s jut the congestion of the city, bad layout, oblivious to one’s surroundings, inability to be patient and people not following the rules of the road. I won’t go as far as saying everyone here is a good driver, I scooter and drive on a regular basis and there’s some pretty questionable behavior.
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Fixed the spelling for you.
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That’s pretty much it. They pretty much give anyone a DL in the states. Most states people drive from 16, some even at 15 like Mississippi. But i’ve known some really terrible drivers in the US, friends, family, you name it. I think what you have is a large number of aggressive high confidence drivers in Taiwan which leads to some of the bad driving you see. But there’s a certain rule to driving that way here. And a bunch of low confidence timid drivers in the US and many of them are completely oblivious to how bad their driving is.
I see the problem not with drivers who don’t know how to drive (bad drivers), but with intentional bad driving. For example, when taking a left on a green light, a car in the front might have enough space to make the turn, but then the car behind him rides close so that oncoming traffic going straight and thus have the right of way cannot continue going straight. Sometimes there is a train of cars doing this so that the oncoming traffic has to wait quite a while. Purely intentional bad driving.
Now for those that first drove in the west, culture comes into play as these drivers may as well be flipping the bird to the oncoming traffic. It’s not taken so seriously by local drivers. But this difference in culture is what leads many foreigners to frustration and to conclude that the driving here is terrible. And there are many examples I could give.
My two cents.
There’s an incredible amount of jackass selfishness on the roads here in Taiwan, compounded by drivers justifying additional jackassery based on the incredible amounts of jackass selfishness around them.
Whatever you choose to call this, I cannot call it “good.”
Guy
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Actually what you have in Taiwan with regards to driving is people that don’t follow the driving rules, are always trying to cut each other off, like to play a game of “chicken”, and don’t respect pedestrians or cyclists.
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I’ve just kinda accepted the way people drive here and adapted. Sure I get pissed here and there, but it’s not enough for me to complain. The last time and the only time I confronted someone that I can think of was driving in Italy. People drive just as aggressive and speed like crazy there. But the one thing I can’t stand and just makes me lose it is tailgating. They are so awful about that in Italy I was losing my shit. Especially if they have a car that’s not exactly made to handle situations like braking fast. I can accept it if the car behind me is a nice BMW or Porsche, but if i’m breaking in my car from something in front of me and your car’s breaks are garbage and will 100% hit mine. Why would you tailgate me?
I actually came to a complete stop and got out of my car and walked over.
I don’t see this as bad driving, but more what @afterspivak explained in his post…
…and also the lack of enforcement of breaking those rules.
I agree that afterspivak’s characterization is a better one. But I see this discussion has been repeated several times in this forum. One side says that the driving here is bad, terrible in fact. Another side says that the driving here ain’t that bad, especially when compared to North Korea (or wherever). The two sides talk past each other because they’re actually talking about two different things, which I labeled as bad drivers versus intentional bad driving for convenience. Am I making sense? Anyway, I enjoyed the small sausage conversation yesterday much more.
Isn’t this the awesome part of forumosa? There is indeed something for everyone.
Guy
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I’ll bet you did, Elvis…
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Wasn’t meant as an argumentative post on whether or not the driving is bad. We all know it is, or agree to disagree on it.
Just wanted to hear stories, and learn some things. I do enjoy the smart-ass replies though, entertaining.
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You might be a big boy, but a lot of drivers carry baseball bats, machetes, guns, or just prefer to use their vehicle as a weapon.
Especially beware of those who travel in packs.
Here are a few examples of road rage in Taiwan. Just a few picks from what happens daily on the streets of Taiwan.
Thanks for the link.
I made a post stating exactly that, which was deleted for some reason. “I can handle myself, but not trying to battle a group of armed dudes”. Don’t see why that would be removed.
If you had kids here and they have to cross the road to get to school or just let toddlers feel safe waking on the pavement, it would drive you mad.
Lots of times my wife has told me of near misses where cars almost clipped the kids stroller or they are not looking and the drivers take the turn way too quickly. Some of those drivers were women and probably mothers too!
None of the drivers ever apologised sincerely and apologies mean nothing when your kid has been injured or killed.
But even when I didn’t have kids I hated their lack of respect to pedestrians in particular. I don’t know why people have to drive so agitated and so quickly here, in Thailand and Malaysia they follow the rules of the road better and no so aggressive . I actually was driving on the Malaysian highway a while back and undertook a car without thinking and then felt really bad about it when I realised NOBODY was doing that because it’s obviously a big no no there. I have learned some shitty habits in Taiwan.
Bus drivers are also from the second level of hell.
It all boils down to a lack of respect and selfishness.
I think a lot of people never walk anywhere either so they think drivers own the road and everything around it.
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All hell breaks loose when you start a thread relating to driving/scooters/pedestrians on here. Don’t worry. We just need to vent. It makes us feel better, despite we know nothing will ever change.
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haha. A friend from Tainan went with me back to Texas. Every time a car would approach from a side street, she would flinch. She really didn’t believe they’d stop before turning right onto the road. 
If I were to just pull out in front of a car in Texas, I’d be hit and maybe shot for bad driving.
It seems selfish, but I think it goes back to what’s socially accepted here. People don’t think it’s weird to honk a pedestrian in a cross walk here. When they look at the road, they don’t see the lines, they see spaces where their vehicle could fit.
I was waiting in the shade before a stop light yesterday and a lady was carrying a giant box of fruit to her car. She smiled at me and gave me a giant guava and said 給你。It’s just different.
There needs to road test and not a backwards S parking test. No one is taught this here so why should we expect it to be the norm.
This year they added a road test along with the written test and closed-course test. But, the backwards S test is still on the closed-course portion.