sure but i dont think thats the locals perspective. i dont think they see buying a scooter to have any benefit over a car ( unless they have both already so they can use whatever is most convenient) . personally i think they see cars and vehicles on a pretty basic and material level. everyone should ideally own a car and a house. no matter what public transport is available. and no matter how ridiculously over priced the house is.
i don’t even think scooters are that convenient, its basically riding in straight line then waiting at lights forever and getting no where fast. might be better than a car but its still crap.
They’d have to pry my scooter from my cold dead hands. I could easily afford a car, but it’s something I would never even consider living in Taipei. Parking is just too much of a hassle. Most apartments don’t have parking garages, and wherever you’re going in town it’s also a major hassle to find parking. The logistics just make it not worth the trouble.
If you’re on a scooter, you can always find parking, and it’s almost always free. And wherever I’m going in Taipei, I can always get there much faster on a scooter than by public transportation. My daily commute to work takes 15 minutes by scooter, but 40 minutes by bus.
Oh, we’re gloriously off topic now. I was getting tired of talking about the sorrows of young Warmbier.
In Taiwan, scooters make all sorts of sense as a default mode of transportation. There are plenty of places in the world where they just wouldn’t work - anywhere with freezing winters. But in Taiwan, yes. Absolutely.
People not using public transportation here is truly maddening. Taipei has one of the best subway systems in the world and hardly anyone is using it. “Convenient” is just another way of saying that a person is lazy and selfish
I wouldn’t say hardly anyone is using it because it’s still one of the busiest systems in the world, and it’s incredibly crowded in the morning and on weekends, but it definitely could take more.
I think people are just too used to their motorcycles. That’s what happens when you start building proper public transport extremely late.
Is it one of the busiest? A lot of articles complain that usage is waaaaaayyy to low. Around 14% of inhabitants in Taipei and New Taipei regularly commute using the system, compared to 40% in new York
I don’t think there’s any correlation. People living in London were still using their cars in 2000 despite having a pretty good 100-year-old subway system. It took Red Ken to say “no more cars” before people started leaving them at home. These days, most Londoners genuinely believe you’d be mad for wanting to drive into central London.
If anything, I’d say Taipei’s subway system is far superior to London’s because it was built late, with the benefit of decades of hindsight, and modern traction technology.
It probably is just a capacity problem. You can’t get the entire population of Taipei to work and back at rush hour on the existing system, and if you did, you’d have a lot of capacity standing idle at other times. The best option, IMO, would be for the gubmint to encourage staggered working hours or flexitime.
London Underground sucks because it’s way too expensive. £4.90 for one ride is garbage. If I were Londoner I would drive too, or take the bus. Even with that Oyster thingy it’s still £2.40.
I’m not comparing it with Taipei, I’m comparing it with Paris, supposedly a city that is equal to London. In Paris one ride is €1.70, and if you get a monthly pass it’s cheaper than Taipei metro. A monthly pass I Paris is like €70 (for all zones) while in London it’s like what, £300? Ridiculous. I’ll forever hate London for such blatant ripoff.
London Underground is an outrageous rip-off. The congestion charge has rightly priced 90% of people out of even considering commuting to work in London. Cycling is the best option for many and the government is investing billions there.
But anyway, I don’t believe that there is sufficient public transportation for the majority of citizens of Taipei to travel to work without using private motorized vehicles. The government is too scared to penalize scooter riders and motorists because of the uproar
yea, the MRT is great but can you really say it has been placed as the mode of transport with the most priority when its underground? the roads are literally on top of it. and as has already been said, theres nothing penalising scooter riders and doesn’t seem like there ever will be. its just not an issue for the powers that be.
also agree with whats said about the london underground. the price is a joke. the stations and some trains are super old and crappy too. all transport in uk is a huge rip off. even though i complain about the scooters and roads in taiwan on a daily basis the service and price of transport is quite amazing.
The MRT is already packed as it is. You ever seen zhongxiao fushing going North on the brown line in the morning? They send empty trains skipping stations to handle the load.
What they need to do is expand it to cover all areas. The MRT is a good system and I think it works well for Taipei, just need to increase the coverage.
Oh, I believe they are working on that. However, the problem seems to be that the mroe they expand, the more packed it gets. People need that service so they occupy that space.
Xindian line is reaching Tokyo proportions mornings, evenings and weekends. Weekends the tourist crowds, families, etc, especially at Ximen connection… oh, like sardines.
I think number 2 (building a parallel line)is impractical in Taipei. That would probably cost a hellava lot of money. And given that Taiwan tends to take ages to build new MRT lines (airport MRT anyone?), it wouldn’t help in the near future.
