Is there an adjective that means, “The best time to catch up on daily cheesy soap operas with your built in satellite TV?”
Yeah…Irresponsible 
Fubar.
Stupor inducing
Anti Zen
I got my Taiwan driver’s license by studying the on-line questions in English and then taking the written test in English. (Bless you Taiwan for making this so easy for English speakers!)
That said, after observing the way driving is done in Taipei, one could very easily conclude that the on-line questions are from an entirely different country. There is NO obvious relationship between what the on-line systems says the rules are and the way people drive here.
It’s rather like seeing a dancing bear; one marvels not at how well it’s done but that it’s done at all.
[quote=“kaipakati”]In
I love the road etiquette here, now that I’ve learnt to understand it and not interpret it from my own frame of reference…
I learnt that a horn almost always means a polite “excuse me I’m coming through”, “did you notice me here?” and is almost never the aggressive signal that I initially believed it to be…
So, I stand by my adjectives, and I add “self-responsible”.
I agree that road users are not particularly “law abiding” here, if they even know what the road rules are. But they know how to operate self-responsibly in apparent chaos. And I say, when in Rome, do as the Romans…
No point bitching that there’s no place like home.
If you can get over the fact that it’s DIFFERENT and figure out how to work it, can also be quite fun. 
[/quote]
Lot of truth in the above, its not all bad.
But it is very far from being the WHOLE TRUTH
So perhaps we could add “schizoid” to the list (if we knew how to spell it).
Why not? It’s as good a measure of humanity as any I can think of.
Even though driving here CAN be nerve racking at times…I still think it’s fun.
Just put yourself into a sort of trance when you drive, crank up the electronic music and just cruise on auto pilot and somehow it all just works? Well 99pct of the time. Just watch out for the one percent.
I covered about 500,000KM in Taiwan in various cars and got hit head on once (came thru ok) took out two scooters (the people came out ok but the scooters died) , got hit by a bus (i wasnt in it, car door needed replacing). A couple of scooters ran into me (everyone is ok) and thats about it.
But the 12,000KM i covered on my ridiculous Honda Moped were scary ass shit !!
I cant believe anyone wanting to scooter it in Taiwan. You are all CRAZY. JUST CRAZY !! I would NEVER recommend anyone to go two wheeling in Taiwan (in a scooter or moto and even cycling). 
But i have heard its quite a rush, like flying an F16 into enemy airspace. And thats pretty much true because you CAN DIE !
[quote=“tommy525”]Just put yourself into a sort of trance when you drive, crank up the electronic music and just cruise on auto pilot and somehow it all just works? Well 99pct of the time. Just watch out for the one percent.
I covered about 500,000KM in Taiwan in various cars and got hit head on once (came thru ok) took out two scooters (the people came out ok but the scooters died) , got hit by a bus (i wasn’t in it, car door needed replacing). A couple of scooters ran into me (everyone is ok) and thats about it.
But the 12,000KM i covered on my ridiculous Honda Moped were scary ass shit !!
I cant believe anyone wanting to scooter it in Taiwan. You are all CRAZY. JUST CRAZY !! I would NEVER recommend anyone to go two wheeling in Taiwan (in a scooter or moto and even cycling). But I have heard its quite a rush, like flying an F16 into enemy airspace. And thats pretty much true because you CAN DIE ![/quote]
I agree with most of this. Except the crank up the electronic music part
That’s probably because Tommy drives/drove a rice rocket with a more expensive stereo than the car.
god can you imagine if there were anything like us levels of gun ownership here[/quote]
I’d have Sulavaca install a 134 electric mini gun on the roof of my Cefiro with 360 site range, joystick handling and a belt feed from the trunk with hampers to catch the spent shells. Then I’d take it off everytime it needed inspection so that I wouldn’t get fined for having an aftermarket accessory.
SELFISH was the best adjective I’ve seen posted so far. Wait until you’ve been here long enough to lose some friends to traffic accidents or spend time in the hospital and you won’t be so “understanding” of their driving culture.
Atrocious and Shit-eating.
Wondrous 
- I can’t believe my van can fit through that space (“Why all the long faces” Harry Potter Bus scene)
Miraculous- Can’t believe I anticipated that a motorcycle was going to pop up behind that blind wall
Religious - By logic we should have bought it a long time ago. Someone is watching us and guiding us to be careful. Amen 
Every day a prayer to get us home safely and harm no one.
I’ve been in Taipei for about 2 months now and, pretty much, been cycling about most of this time. I’ve kinda worked out the general rules in terms of safe riding - concentrate on what’s in front of you, as in really concentrate, has that parked car got someone sitting on the driver side front or back, is that taxi looking like it may pull out with no indication, is that a side road ahead where a scooter may just pull out without looking. See these things, adjust for them early, don’t make any sudden turns, all long slow movements so people behind you can see what you’re doing, and you should be fine.
I say all this now, but I’m probably gonna die tomorrow.
[quote=“Wai”]I’ve been in Taipei for about 2 months now and, pretty much, been cycling about most of this time. I’ve kinda worked out the general rules in terms of safe riding - concentrate on what’s in front of you, as in really concentrate, has that parked car got someone sitting on the driver side front or back, is that taxi looking like it may pull out with no indication, is that a side road ahead where a scooter may just pull out without looking. See these things, adjust for them early, don’t make any sudden turns, all long slow movements so people behind you can see what you’re doing, and you should be fine.
.[/quote]
I think you better do those anywhere!
[quote=“Tempo Gain”][quote=“Wai”]I’ve been in Taipei for about 2 months now and, pretty much, been cycling about most of this time. I’ve kinda worked out the general rules in terms of safe riding - concentrate on what’s in front of you, as in really concentrate, has that parked car got someone sitting on the driver side front or back, is that taxi looking like it may pull out with no indication, is that a side road ahead where a scooter may just pull out without looking. See these things, adjust for them early, don’t make any sudden turns, all long slow movements so people behind you can see what you’re doing, and you should be fine.
.[/quote]
I think you better do those anywhere![/quote]
Naturally, but you don’t expect someone to just pull out without looking back home, if they did, any accident would most certainly been seen as their fault. It seems like there’s just a different driving culture here. At home, you see a gap, you go for it as quick as you can, here, just drift lanes and someone will make space. Obviously, to westerners like you and me, this seems pretty crazy, that guy wasn’t in the right lane, he should have known where he was going and prepared for it. I know back home it used to piss me off no end when someone cut up a queue. Things just seem different, but it’s just a cultural thing no? You want people to drive like they do back home, then go back home, etc. Obviously I’m being over simplistic, I only have 2 months experience to go on, has anyone actually got any actual stats in terms of deaths on the road? Are they even available? if they did, surely they would be the accurate way of measuring the actual danger of the roads here vs the perceived danger that people feel from a system that differs from what they’re used to?
We just returned from a 3-week vacation in Taiwan and rented a car. Wow, what an experience that was! Not our first time driving there but seemed a little more chaotic and congested than it was 6 years ago. But after a few days you start to see a system to the chaos and you find yourself doing the same crazy things you see everyone else doing. Taipei was just insane - I will probably never drive there again. Taichung is more organized and the people a bit nicer. Putting on snow chains at HeHuanShan and driving over the pass was definitely a highlight. People there absolutely cannot drive in snow. Thankfully I grew up in the northern US and easily made it through.
Its pretty safe to say, if you can drive in Taiwan, you really can drive anywhere because the whole place is full of “chinese” drivers?? haha
Now every now and then I drive like I was still in Taiwan here in the bay area and… it gets “interesting”
[quote=“Wai”]. See these things, adjust for them early, don’t make any sudden turns, all long slow movements so people behind you can see what you’re doing, and you should be fine.
I say all this now, but I’m probably gonna die tomorrow.[/quote]
Sound advice but for the last part. I signal, telegraph my movements etc. but they don’t seem to see. Was backing up slowly.Only a couple inches so I can get around a car parked in front of me Guy tried to turn behind me into a parking spot. I was parallel parked on the street and there was a 7-11 parking lot just behind me. And… crush. His little March had a nice dent in the door. He lied. I got cooked.
I’ll still signal and follow your lead, but damn… I just can’t figure out the Taiwanese technique.
Thoughtless. There are so many manoeuvres done here that just make crashes more likely. One from yesterday: 2nd in line at a red light, buildings on the left corner so it’s pretty much blind for anyone turning right into the road I’m on. The car in front decides to do a 9-point turn and go back the other way. Shuffling around for a minute on the blind spot, just inviting a car to turn right and hit her. She got lucky, nothing came.