Learn Chinese first and read local media and PTT. You are limited by what you get “translated”. And translated media is heavily politiziced, hence, the problem of digging through the garbage to get to the gold.
Taiwanese won’t complain to you unless you are close chums and have been drinking Gaoliang a bit.
Like Icon said, learn the language, maybe your riding buddies just don’t know how to express their anger towards the ridiculous driving in English.
I’ve completely lost count of how many posts I’ve seen on PTT and local FB groups on how locals are assholes on the road.
The local news reports car accidents everyday, but I have noticed they never ever criticize the victims of the incident. They just…report the incident and inform you what’s right and what’s wrong.
I’m afraid I don’t know what PTT stands for, but if the newspapers are anything to do with TV news, then I guess their main topic is noodles, tofu, scams, fights and whatever bullshit VIP’s do. I’ll however give you that, I haven’t read newspapers, so my opinion is heavily based on online translated media, and bullshit news on tv.
That’s, at least, weird. But when I discuss with a local about something REALLY RECKLESS we just saw on the road, they don’t seem to be worried about that. Even more, sometimes I’m told that I do the same (and I can tell you, I don’t: I try to not cut anybody’s way on the road, which is a natural behaviour here).
Right, they report accidents. That’s good because may be, and only may be, one day people here will be tired of accidents and will try to actively avoid them.
I guess that my point was more like the general feeling about drivers here is like “it’s normal!”, which is true… for them. Again, people from different countries have different standards, and countries have different histories, and are in different moments of their particular history. But there is a problem when there’s access to so many vehicles, and laws are not enforced (or not the important ones), and the average opinion is that “it’s normal”.
Complains about this here and there? sure. But, what’s the average feeling?
I should stay anonymous, that would be safer
But something similar happened in my working place.
Someone flirted with a stroke related to work load (I take responsibility here. even if the personality of that person is a key point). The weak people (unable to say ‘NO’ in my working place) haven’t had a rest day for… since Chinese New Year’s third day.
I hear locals complaining about bad driving all the time. But they’re total hypocrites. Often, a friend will be complaining about all the asshole drivers on the road…while driving like an asshole himself. It seems like bad or illegal behavior is only bad when other people are doing it.
I don’t. Well, I have heard once that “Taiwanese are very friendly but when we are on the road we are the contrary”.
…
edited
Well, I will be honest …
If I am on the bike, most cars leaving me no space, and cutting me off, should be taken off the road forever …
But if I am driving my car, well, all those bikers obstructing my path should be shot 
Nothing much different than in any country.
Indeed. Bad driving is an issue. Bad driving leads to accidents. But bad driving is not exclusive to Taiwanese.
Moreover, in the case of the accident, what we can call bad driving -speeding- was in turn caused by extreme circunstances…which are endemic in the field.
As an update: as we say in Spanish, pagan justos por pecadores, the righteous atone the sins of the sinners, as ALL buses in the indutry are affected by the new government regulations. However, no one has spoken a beep about compensation for the victims…
^i don’t see how speeding is justifiable any time you are driving a bus full of people whose lives you are responsible for. the cause is the shitty driving culture and lack of laws being enforced end of.
bad driving is such a huge problem here because taiwan is built around the roads and scooters… sadly. its a massive part of life here and we need to live with it everyday. these problems should be faced, not only when the shit hits the fan and 30 people die over it.
It is not justifiable, just understandable as the driver was not in health conditions to drive such a long haul.
But his situation is far from willing jerk on the road.
what extreme circumstances made the driver to drive faster?
I know what you mean, and that’s selfishness or ego-centrism. That’s the problem with Taiwanese drivers. I said it here years ago: the main problem is not lack of skills (well, in some cases it is), the problem is people here are overall more selfish on the road than where I come from (where you can also see many selfish drivers too).
When I ride my motorcycle I try not to cut anybody’s way, I let other people go before me if the situation makes me think they should go first. In most of the cases I do it, I rarely see other drivers/riders do the same.
Extreme exhaustion which impaired judgement. Same situation as the China Airlines pilots -which, BTW, you can check the documentaries in Natuonal Geographic. Seconds from disaster I think.
I don’t think that the effect of that on a driver is to drive faster. Your response time becomes sluggish and you your attention is lacking, but generally nobody drives faster out of tiredness. It’s more the contrary.
one cheap solution –
comes with the option of sticking your kids picture , wife, dog or anything you care about…
As I said before, as per the tacometer/record, after driving over 11 hours, the third day of a challenging route, after not resting properly for 18 days, he was accelerating and desacelerating down the highway, showing he was not completely in control of the vehicle.
I would rather think that the reason for that is to make it back on time. Plus traffic conditions.
Indeed. He is aslo penalized for arriving late, plus he was supposed to service the bus before going home.
Traffic was smooth.