Wack Things in Taiwan (part 3)

You’re welcome to visit the cycling forum, we have an entire thread based off of this phenomenon. :smiley:

TBH, wher eBobby and I walk, some genius designer put us pedestrians and cyclists on a collision course, as ther eis no way to avoid intersecting paths when you reach a crossing or the which one is which is not clearly marked. :blush:

Government websites are not designed with teh obvious target audience -the public- in mind. Our target audience is the Big Bosses, who like those revolving pictures and music and add Chinese characters for “originality” and “because this is Taiwan”.

Allowing websites with Chinese urls is a new development, “to attract CHINESE users and facilitate the market entry”.

i barely notice either to be honest. i just ride and walk where there is a space. theres no point to ride fast as there is always going to be obstacles to avoid.

They’re probably trying to avoid the cyclists on the pedestrian path. On one of the only stretches of pedestrian path that is free from scooters, stalls, and junk on the way to my sons school we regularly have near misses from idiots cycling on the pedestrian path, it’s parallel to a perfectly fine wide roadway…

I think allowing cyclists on the pavement is definitely a recipe for conflict, and lot of cyclists behave badly, but that’s the reality in Taiwan, space is at a premium, it’s crowded, everyone should be considerate and respectful to others.

But in this case, Da’an Park, you have a perfect separation of two broad lanes, one for cyclists, the other for walkers, and a lot of people don’t get the idea. They just don’t get it. And I don’t get that. :tired_face:

In Taiwan, rules are for fools (or so a significant part of the population has been trained to think).

My way of dealing with this situation is to ride at full speed (in the bike lane, of course) right at the clueless offending pedestrian(s). I do not do this to small children as they are excused–but adults are fair game. When I screech to a halt inches from their knees, it scares the bejeesus out of them. I then smile and point them to the pedestrian sidewalk.

Guy

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locals are considerate in one way. they will get out of your way if you make them and not cause a fuss about it. unless you take that step i wouldn’t call their behaviour considerate at all. the fact is under the local logic riding on the path isn’t a problem.

Hopefully you then wake up.

Unfortunately there is no waking up. This dream seems to go on and on. :slight_smile:

Guy

This is the opposite of Whack but didnt know where to post:

These are pillows. Gotta love the creativity (had to buy one for little sister).

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Ikea?

Nope, RT mart (Tainan). :wink:

This is not whack at all, or it should not be in my opinion.

Was walking to the bus stop this morning. A mother with a little girl walks out of a building, comes my way. Partly covered by her coat is a baby (in a sling I guess) having breakfast. Yes, the mother was feeding the baby on the go (literally) while talking to her other child, breast exposed (but nipple covered by the baby of course) in broad daylight on the pavement.

And she does not have to worry about right-wing religious bigots shaming her for indecent exposure of her breast. I love Taiwan for that.

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She only has to worry about skeevy foreigners checking out her rack.

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I’ll chime in here and even though I agree with how pedestrians should really stay off the bike path. I’ll take the pedestrian point of view.

How I see it is, there’s too many people on the pedestrian path and some of them are walking slow or 4-5 across, blocking the path. So, some people think, “Oh, bike path is free of slow walkers and people blocking my path, let me jump on there”

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Agreed. Naive, weird, overly friendly, curious people, or just mentally challenged… it’s not worth making a big deal out of it, or getting offended.

I say Hsinchuang. Only if asked again I say my country’s Chinese name.

Last month somebody said me “welcome to Taiwan” in my elevator. I told him that I had been living in Taiwan for 6 years :smiley:

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Or they don’t think at all…

I feel a lot of times it’s just lack of thinking, lack of awareness what’s going on around them. Like people coming out of a shop and walking right in front of me, not even looking right or left. So my guess is many people are not even aware that there is in fact a bike path and a pedestrian path, and that it makes sense to walk on one and not the other. Or, if they do think, their thought might be “I have the right to walk anywhere I please.” Yes, you do, but you are not helping the system run more smoothly, you egoist! :slight_smile:

I guarantee this will be the reason I one day crash on the scooter or bike. Except the shop is actually a side street and the person is a car or scooter.

Fine point @hannes There’s definitely lots of ways to look at it. Yours is just glass half empty, mine’s the opposite. I sometimes and I do emphasize on sometimes like to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Or the shop is a car door… Be alert!