I’ve been cycling in Taiwan for around 6 months now, and had many close shaves and instances of people seemingly not seeing me.
I’m assuming that the Taiwanese driving test involves a written test, including a rigorous test on hazard awareness and how to spot and deal with hazards, then after passing that another rigorous test on the road with an examiner who is not only checking to make sure you’re following the rules but also your situational awareness and your driving technique.
I’m also assuming that the standard for passing that test is similar to what it is in the UK or Germany or other European countries.
Given that’s the case, why do drivers have such a hard time seeing me, passing me at safe distances and giving me enough space?
Wrong. You literally drive on a closed course and try to do maneuvers like a backwards S between cones. Not very realistic and I can’t think of a single time recently I had to do a backwards S.
The thing with Taiwan is, people who drive are usually people who can drive with the skill needed. Whether or not they follow traffic rules and safety is another matter.
There are many bad drivers with low skill and low confidence on the road in many other countries like the US where everyone gets a license pretty much. But they do get on road experience and can mitigate the dangers with larger roads and easy traffic by being careful drivers.
You can’t really drive in places like Taiwan if you have low skill and confidence as a driver as you’d be driven off the road.
Not seemingly. They can’t see you because of opaque window films and/or because they are responding to Line messages while driving. Also Taiwanese cars come with extra-large A-pillars.
Every country has written traffic laws… and then there’s what people actually do on the road, which is a pattern of “expected behavior”.
Until you are acclimated to that pattern, (which has regional variations as well, downtown Taipei is not at all like Hualien), it’s difficult to fit into it well, and also difficult to quickly and easily recognize anomalous behavior on the part of others.
Changing countries is a bit like changing cars. If you’ve only ever driven one before then it’s a Big Deal, and may take days or weeks to get truly comfortable, but if you’ve driven dozens then it just takes a few minutes.
I saw two accidents today, one was two vehicles turning left together that somehow came into contact, the other was an old man with a bleeding head near a smashed scooter. Looked like he had too much confidence coming out of a small alley onto a big street and probably should have checked for oncoming traffic.
Yeah. No turn signal and on the right side of the lane? That car is turning left. Signalling left, gonna go straight. Signalling right? That’s a left. No signal and pointed left in a left turning lane? Probably turning right.
I play the “which way does my gut tell me this driver is going” quite a lot, getting good at it. Gonna be weird to go to a place that understands how the turning signals work (hint, don’t put them on to help the car when the road is turning)
x1000
I also worry how I, and drivers, will be affected when I return to civilization.
On the other hand sometimes I like the anticipation and flow of it.
You assuming anything about the standard of driving is a bit of a joke. There is no standard here, 99% of car drivers started on scooters, rode like maniacs and then graduated to cars where once they had a license drove them like they are a scooter.
Ok, if the driving is as bad as you all say, and they don’t have proper training and a proper road test on how to drive, why doesn’t the government introduce one?
