I was driving home in Taichung City this evening and had a rather interesting experience. After waiting at a red light at a rather busy intersection, the light turned green and I drove on as the first car in line. Just as I was at the other side of the intersection, a scooter came zipping by on the left hand side (I was in the left lane), nearly hitting both my car and the concrete median. It was a tiny space; they were VERY lucky I didn’t hit them.
I of course held down my horn for a few seconds, as I don’t like having my life endangered by reckless morons. The two punks on the scooter then slowed down in front of me and began weaving around in the road, looking back at me and shouting. The one driving the scooter took off his helmet and held it to the side in his left hand, like he intended to hit me with it. Again, they were very lucky not to have crashed because while they were busy threatening me they weren’t looking in front of them.
Having just read the story of the foreigner in Hsinchu who was jumped by a gang of Taiwanese barbarians, I sped up and passed in the right lane. The two goons shouted something in Taiwanese as I drove past, the driver still swinging his helmet around like a maniac.
This is the first time in my life I have seen such idiotic behavior. The scooter driver was driving incredibly recklessly and was completely in error, yet he became angry with me when I had the gall to beep at him. He is not only a terrible, incredibly stupid driver, he is also rude and offensive about it. This is not the first time I’ve had such experiences, though this was the only time I really felt like a fight was imminent.
Strange country, where people can drive so terribly and then become angry with those who drive correctly.
VERY. SMART. MOVE. I’m glad you got away okay; you’re not the first one to be “ambushed” by scooter punks, and you won’t be the last.
It is, rather. It pisses me off, because a lot of these guys actually drive like that to stir up shite, because they feel like a fight. If they piss off members of another gang, road rage ensues, with predictable results. Sometimes I wish they’d all just crack each other’s heads open and make the world a better place. Darwin award!
I once almost got hit head on by a guy going around a tight corner by my school. Luckily for those mirrors on corners, I could see him approaching so I slowed down…but he sped around the corner and laid in such a way that the side of his scooter almost touched the street.
He was cutting the corner into my lane…and he stopped dead, his back tire went into the air. His front tire basically touched mine…He GLARED at me. I could see from the blue lights under his scooter and the fact that he had no helmet (and orange hair) that I should just smile nicely. Unfortunately he IS going to get away with it because I know if I said something he would have fkd me up. Even though it was his fault.
[quote=“barfomcgee”]This is the first time in my life I have seen such idiotic behavior.[/quote] You haven’t been in Taichung very long, have you?
For the most part, the scooter punks are all mouth and no trousers, when they’re on their own or with just a couple of mates, anyway. When they’re in packs of 40, riding slowly down Zhonghua Rd at 1am waving baseball bats, that’s really the time to not attract any attention.
Still, the smart thing to do is generally let these things go in any case. You do get the odd complete nutter who’s willing to take things a stage further, with or without mates.
When I first got here, I honked my horn at a couple of scooter punks who were blocking a small scooter path. They moved out of the way for me, but followed me to the next intersection. I didn’t realize they were behind me and when I stopped at the red light I was hit with a blunt object to my head (I was wearing a full face helmet), but force knocked me off my scooter. I thought I got rear-ended by a car or something. When I stood up there were about 5 of these guys all with weapons. They took turns trying to hit me. I couple of guys managed to hit my head again, which knocked me down. Didn’t hurt though. I then noticed my scooter still running on the ground, I picked it up, ran the light and they didn’t follow me. I was pretty lucky. Be careful, I never honk anymore unless they are old people.
On a different note, I was jumped and slashed with a machete two years ago. Spent 10 days in the hospital, had emergency surgery because they cut all my tendons in my right hand, my ulnar nerve and artery. I had physical therapy for a year, and still have no feeling in half of my right hand. My motor skills aren’t the same either. You would never know, besides for my giant scar.
So, don’t ever get involved with something that doesn’t concern you here in Taiwan. Try to limit your honking for flipping the bird. I love the Taiwanese, but they are capable of really hurting people.
It sounds like I was rather lucky there were only two of these assholes and not a whole pack. I guess I’ll have to be more careful about using my horn, though it seems crazy that you can’t beep at stupid, dangerous drivers.
Actually, a few weeks ago I had another interesting experience. Driving back from Dakeng in the middle of the afternoon, some jerk in a white Ford cut in front of me without warning and nearly caused an accident. I beeped at him, and the guy pulled into the right lane and stopped in the middle of the road waiting for me to catch up to him. Once he saw I was a foreigner he sped off, but it seemed like that guy was looking for a fight, too. It’s ridiculous that people can be such terrible, idiotic drivers and yet still be aggressive assholes. I really didn’t expect this kind of behavior in a country that pretends to be fully developed.
Okay, this isn’t entirely related and I’m not even sure whether this question is hypothetical or not: How do scooter punks manage to instantaneously produce large and awkward weapons at the appropriate times (like when I saw them chasing another scooter punk a week or so ago)? It almost reminds me of cartoons with those stupid “ACME” hammers that mysteriously appeared.
Also, why do the scooter punks’ grandfathers’ baby toes hang out the hole in the side of their toilet slippers? Don’t they stub them?
For some reason, Taichung is Taiwan’s center for scooter riffraff. Whenever I hear of a stabbing or other inexplicable crimes or dangerous actions carried out by scooter punks, it’s always in Taichung.
I’m pretty indifferent about the Taichung scooter punks since they generally stopped hanging out in 40-strong gangs. Just remind me of the little twats that have infected every major city I lived in. They’re always rude to me whenever I stop where they’re hanging out but I shoot the shit with them in a friendly way, let them check out my bike’s speedo and I’ve not been u-locked yet. The hostility winds down to embarrassment and shyness when they have nothing left to push against. I’m going to get knifed sometime soon, aren’t I? :neutral: Oh well :eh:
[quote=“barfomcgee”]I was driving home in Taichung City this evening and had a rather interesting experience. After waiting at a red light at a rather busy intersection, the light turned green and I drove on as the first car in line. Just as I was at the other side of the intersection, a scooter came zipping by on the left hand side (I was in the left lane), nearly hitting both my car and the concrete median. It was a tiny space; they were VERY lucky I didn’t hit them.
[/quote]
I had the same situation when crossing the road in Zhubei one time. But I didn’t push the horn. I mentioned that situation when chatting with some colleagues at work. They all told me instantly “Don’t confront them. They will hurt you”.
Not confronting them has nothing to do with being a coward. Its just that they are usually drunk/drugged and might even carry some weapons. Anways after over 3 years in Taiwan I’ve seen this kind of people maybe 5 to 6 times only. They are ignorable.
While I get spitting mad about a hundred times a day, I’ve only crossed the line once and that was, strangely, in TianMu. I was riding my scooter with the girl on the back, on the left hand side of a one-lane one-way road, and some guy on a Grand Dink literally pushed us out of the way to pass on the left side, where there was no room, rather than the right side, where there was plenty. He had nowhere to go anyway, there was a bus right in front that was taking up the whole lane.
I don’t know why but I snapped, screamed something at him, and then smashed my scooter into the side of his and ran him off the road. After we all got back on our feet he – very calmly – walked over and asked me if I was taking revenge. I stared blankly at him (I didn’t know the word for “revenge” then), and after a moment he said “You weren’t? Okay”, got back on his scooter and left.
It was incredibly stupid. I could easily have hurt or killed my girlfriend or myself just from the crash, never mind the potential fight (which I suspect I’d have badly lost – that dude was calm as hell). Since then I’ve promised myself never to respond to any of that crap.
I have a couple of foreign friends here (in Taichung) who seem to positively delight in getting into altercations in the road, ending up in fights, screaming matches, mutual vehicle-beatings and so on. Strangely, none of them have become serious, but it’s surely only a matter of time.
[quote=“Brendon”]
I have a couple of foreign friends here (in Taichung) who seem to positively delight in getting into altercations in the road, ending up in fights, screaming matches, mutual vehicle-beatings and so on. Strangely, none of them have become serious, but it’s surely only a matter of time.[/quote]
It seems we have the same friends in Taichung. I’m worried about them.
With the driving style here we need to close both eyes, I mean forget about it, all the time.
Cause if you’ve been finished fighting with them at one crossroad, you will have to do it again after 5 minutes on the next one… In the West it makes sense to shout at them cause they are not so numerous, and the licenses are for real. Not to mention the cops are damn serious and know the laws well.
well in some wired way, when i got my big bike i stopped having issues with “the punks” on scooters, now if we are in the same traffic light they will be amazed by the big bike and even more for the fact that i am a foreigner, they will ask things about it, tell me its cool and then when the light is green they will accelerate in a crazy way as if they were so happy to pass me… lol after a few meters when its safe then i go and pass them on the road saying bye !!!
but now the problem is “the punks” on cars… they go from the ones on civics to the ones on BMWs… they cant accept the fact that even with turbos and all the shit they have they still cant pass me, and the problem is on the expressways when they want to race me and there is a good amount of traffic, because to pass me they will even get to almost push me to get it… so what i do is if there is no traffic i just smoke them so they understand and stop playing, but if there is some traffic i just slow down and try to stay behind a car showing no interest on the matter…
Maybe this should be a new thread or maybe not, but here it goes…
The statistically worst drivers on my way to work:
Mitsubishi (especially Lancers)
BMW (especially black, pimped-up ones)
Mercedes
Suzuki Solio
License plates with lots of 7s in them
License plates with “RV” or “FU” (how ironic) in them
I’m with llary on this one~ I’ve never had an issue with them, and I’ve ridden right smack in the middle of a BIG group of them. Leader looked straight at me, I nodded respectfully, and that was all there was to it.
I’ve never had a big bike, but on the NSR people try to race me much more often than on my little Sym 125. Perhaps they think it’s an appropriate challenge – a notion that, if there’s a nice open road, I’m more than happy to disabuse them of.
[quote=“nemesis”]Maybe this should be a new thread or maybe not, but here it goes…
The statistically worst drivers on my way to work:
Mitsubishi (especially Lancers)
BMW (especially black, pimped-up ones)
Mercedes
Suzuki Solio
License plates with lots of 7s in them
License plates with “RV” or “FU” (how ironic) in them
Anyone else noticed any correlations?[/quote]
License plates where the letters are the same, such as “FF” or “AA”.
Those are leased cars.
The worst of all (but thats in any country): Taxi drivers
One night the wife and i were on our way to the movies. The traffic was quite heavy, but the speed (unbelievable for Taiwan) stayed more or less 50-60kph. And then he was in front of us: an ancient wrinkled bow-legged guy wearing a construction helmet weaving ever so slowly (20kph max!) across the lane. His brandnew Dink needed space. Like a respectable local I hooted once. He immediately slammed on his brakes, and I almost went up his exhaust.
Fine, you bugger. I hooted again, short and sharp. He stopped. I lay on the hooter and revved right up to his number plate. He moved over grudgingly. I passed. He sat on my bumper for the next 2+km - actually running some reds in order to keep up. He ignored other drivers hooting at him. By this time the wife was ripping the upholstery to shreds.
High on adrenaline, I made a quick right, slammed on the brakes, and stopped on the red line on the corner of Beida and Xida. Wife gave me the cellphone. I marched up to the grandpa who had stopped, too, took his pic and also one of his license number. He ignored me stoically.
Back in the car, I accelarated like hell, watching him in the rearview mirror. The Goddess of Revenge on Ancient Turds was with me - a break in the traffic: “Hang on, love!!!” I shouted. Handbrake stop. Grandpa braked with his mouth wide open, slid all the way to the front, off his seat, and smashed his nuts against the steering column, barely keeping his Dink upright. I pulled away and slipped between two blue trucks up a side alley. The last thing I saw was Grandpa The Ancient Scooter Punk waving his one fist, the other occupied with gently cupping his old little dinky.
I’m glad you got away okay; you’re not the first one to be “ambushed” by scooter punks, and you won’t be the last.
You haven’t been in Taichung very long, have you?