Chinese/Taiwanese oblivious to pedestrians

There are times when I feel like doing worse, but then I remember the gangsters and that I am a foreigner here and could get my ass kicked even by non gangsters. So I keep my anger in check.

Do this often. Not hard enough to cause damage, just a tap that makes a noise loud enough to make them wonder if they hit me. Two things usually happen; 1. They drive away like nothing happened or 2. They stop and start to get angry until I yell back and very obviously point out the cross walk.

The former is especially mind blowing to me as they may have just committed manslaughter for all they know. The latter so far always ends with them getting back in their car realizing they canā€™t win that argument.

I know this is stupid and Iā€™ll probably be trying to defend myself against a lead pipe or frivolous lawsuit some day, but something inside me wonā€™t let it go. People in a cross walk that are using it correctly should never have to worry about having their feet run overā€¦or worse.

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Itā€™s difficult to adjust here when you grow up with the whole, ā€œpedestrian has the right of way.ā€ Iā€™m still not use to it and it does drive me crazy when Iā€™m crossing the street and I see these cars trying to squeeze through. I once called a taxi driver guy out on it and he parked the car and told me to get out if I wasnā€™t happy.

Whatever happened to the Whack Things in TW thread?

lol the signs say pedestrians have right of way here too. about as much use as those no smoking and no parking for scooter signs.

Taiwanese are experts at playing dumb when it suits them.

My favorite trick when facing oncoming pedestrians who appear to either be oblivious or simply wont move is to raise my elbow up and out as if scratching the back of my ear, neck or something. Works EVERY time. After all, nobody wants an elbow to the eye socket.

Unfortunately it wont work on the ever present Scooter Nazis.

if i have some shopping or an umbrella i stick it out to make them give me some space. nobody wants their car or scooter scratched either. thats a good tip though, iā€™ll try it.