[quote=“cybertai”]I love riding scooter in Taipei since it’s very convenient. I have a car, but I don’t really drive that often since it’s not easy to park.
Well, sometimes the air quality of Taipei is not that good for riding.
And the rain and hot summer also bothers me.
But hey! I just love the ease of riding a scooter.
I was told that riding a scooter as an everyday commuting tool is quite common in south part of Europe like Italy, or maybe UK.
Can anyone share their experience?
By the way, I love the movie Easy Rider.
And “Torque” is also entertaining to me.
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Yes, all of the above you said, it’s not an enjoyable experience to ride a scooter in Taipei, and the traffic is terrible!
But I enjoy its convenient and easier to move faster when you stuck in the traffic. Besides I ride my scooter to Tamshui and to Yang Ming Shan…it’s much better than taking MRT or the bus to those places. I can go anywhere I want…and I love it (but some people said that I was insane) Only when it’s sunny.
I don’t own a scooter so my experience with them has been mostly things like breathing the cancerous fumes that come out the back of them. And nearly being run down by them. And not having anyplace to walk on the sidewalk because of them. And putting up with the stupid noise of them. I also think a lot about how much they contribute to globall warming so they enter my consciousness that way. Oh yeah, and occasionaly I get to see one get into an accident. That always helps me relax.
Scooters are getting less and less polluting. Newish four-stroke scooters are already pretty clean, but we are also starting to see things like fuel injection and catalytic convertors in scooters, making them even cleaner. If we’re talking about transport for one or two people, then I think a well-maintained four-stroke scooter will be more fuel-efficient and less polluting than a 2-litre car (as well as taking up much less space).
Of course there are some badly-maintained two-stroke bikes that leave plumes of smoke behind them, but they’re getting fewer.
[quote=“cybertai”]Can anyone share their experience?[/quote]As regards city riding, I find I have to concentrate extremely hard to remain safe. This is even more so when I’m carrying a passenger as I need to ride more smoothly to ensure their comfort and peace of mind. So unless it’s late at night, I’m not too enthusiastic about city riding. I think Taipei is a bit better than Taichung though: some roads are wider and traffic seems more sedate.
[quote=“cybertai”]By the way, I love the movie Easy Rider.[/quote]Me too. I have it on VHS. Still, North American desert highways in the 1970s were quite different from Taiwanese city streets in the 2000s! If you’re into this kind of laid-back cruising you’d do best to get out of town and into the countryside, preferably during the week or in the early morning. Have you seen my website? It has some photos, sketch maps and stories about motorbike trips round Taiwan. It’s a bit amateurish really but you might find something of interest: mcttw.tripod.com/trips_photos.htm
[quote=“cybertai”]I was told that riding a scooter as an everyday commuting tool is quite common in south part of Europe like Italy, or maybe UK.[/quote]Scooters and all sizes of motorbikes are very popular in southern Europe: Spain, Portugal, Italy and probably Greece. Britain, being more northerly, has poorer weather and so more people drive cars. I rode 30 miles every day on a 50cc scooter one damp and cold winter. I wouldn’t want to do that again.
Four stroke engines will be a heck of an improvement over two stroke but they fall way short of a bicycle, the MRT or a brisk walk. I know that some European countries are attempting to determine the medical cost of treating illnesses caused or aggravated by vehicle emmisions. The plan is to then add a tax on fuel to pay to pay those costs. It’s a step in the right direction but a lot of people would prefer that this air pollution was not created in the first place. The air in many of Taiwan’s cities is positively vile and it doesn’t need to be. In a city like Taipei for example it is easy to get around on foot, by bicycle, with public transit and with the occasional taxi. In other areas of the country bus service has been reduced because everyone has a car now. That’s just great. Traffic jams everywhere, no place to park, polluted air. People who drive and ride motorcycles should have a look at how much damage they do.
[quote=“bob”]People who drive and ride motorcycles should have a look at how much damage they do.[/quote]Like I said, you need to compare it to cars. I totally agree that it would be great if we could use public transport, bicycles and go on foot most of the time, but you have to look at what is practical and what is actually likely to happen.
EU emissions laws are very strict, and Taiwanese scooter manufacturers do a lot of export to the EU, which is why new bikes are so much cleaner. I think Kymco’s introducing fuel-injected scooters and I’m sure I’ve read something about catalytic convertors. The Taiwanese scooter company CPI has some kind of fancy emissions-reducing exhaust on their bikes and I think everybody else is going the same way. In Thailand I saw that some of the new step-thrus are fuel-injected as well. This is a trend now – overdue maybe, but certainly in the right direction.
And a lot less likely to kill or maim if it hits a pedestrian, cyclist, or other relatively vulnerable road user.
I enjoy riding my scooter outside the city on weekdays and in the early morning at weekends, when the traffic is usually very light. But I strongly dislike riding into Taipei, and very seldom do so these days. I look back on the many years, pre-MRT, when I rode to and from work on my motorbike (before I switched to scooters) every day, week in and week out, in all weather, a horrendous journey of an hour each way, and wonder how on earth I could bear it and managed to survive.
You have surely got to be joking about that! I have never been in a more pedestrian-unfriendly city in all my life. I love walking around, used to walk all over London in my student days, and always explore new cities on foot when I go travelling. But trying to walk anywhere in Taipei is so difficult, slow, maddening, uncomfortable and dangerous, that I seldom walk more than a couple of blocks here.
Can’t say anything else than: I HATE THE FU@%$NG SCOOTERS !!!
Do anybody know how many taxis there are in Taipei. I heard that there would be around 200 000 of them. I HATE THEM TOO !!! They are blocking all the trafic!
But Omni half the reason Taipei is such a horror to walk around in sometimes is the scooters. I have been walking and bicycling around this city for years. If you stick to the back lanes it can be wonderful except of course for the occasional asswipe on his scooter or motorcycle and the bigger asswipes in their cars. This is an extremely high density city. Perfect for mass transit. Instead what you have is one of the highest levels of per capita vehicle ownerships in the world. That is the problem. All I am suggesting is: be a part of the solution.
No, not the scooters, but the people who ride and park scooters in a dangerous and/or inconsiderate manner. People like me, who always obey the traffic laws, park only in designated parking spaces, always show the maximum possible consideration to others, and keep our low-polluting scooters as well maintained as possible, do not in any way contribute to making the city a more unpleasant place for pedestrians, cyclists, or anyone else.
And, while the people whose scooters and motorbikes do add to the stresses and unpleasantness of being in Taipei certainly deserve the strongest condemnation, the sum total of their offensiveness and culpability is nowhere near as great as that of the car drivers, bus drivers, and other categories of motorists. Cars parked on pavements (sidewalks) are a much worse obstruction than two-wheelers and are also a much more lethal threat when one has to step out into or cross the road. The old buses, gravel and cement trucks, and other assorted large vehicles spew out hundreds of times more nasty pollution than the scooters and motorbikes. Having spent thousands of hours riding among massed ranks of two-wheelers as well as behind and beside buses, I know which is by far the worse, and it definitely isn’t the former.
hey bob, wouldn’t it be great if everyone just stayed at home, out of your way, perhaps an empty city for you to explore is just what everyone needs, after all, u are thinking about everyone here, not just ur selfish little self.
I love driving my scooter around Taipei. :lovestruck:
What’s all this talk about ‘the stress and unpleasantness of being in Taipei?’ I think Taipei is a wonderful place to live. I like all the activity and life going on around me. But then again, I also accept that it’s not ‘like back home’ so I am not constantly comparing it to some place else or wishing everyone would change to accommodate me.
Am I to understand that the last few posters don’t think there are too many cars and scooters in Taipei? You don’t think this would be a lot nicer place to live if more people walked, rode a bicycle or used rapid transit? You don’t think the air would be better? You don’t think there would be less noise pollution? Less lung caner? Less lung disesae of every variety?
I admire omni for doing his best to reduce his impact but the fact is his impact would be a lot less if he sold his scooter. Mungacious is too moronic to respond too.
I use whatever form of transport is most convenient and comfortable for me. That tends to be either motorcycle or car. The MRT is convenient as long as your destination happens to be on a line and as long as the thing will still be open when you want to go home. Buses? Eeeew! No way!
With the money that you must spend on car payments, insurance, gas, parking, repairs…wouldn’t you be able to just take a taxi or the mrt most places you wanted to go?
I’ve never sat down and worked it out, but I’d imagine sure, it would probably even out, even though the car was bought outright. But the fact is, I HAVE a car, which I use mostly for out of town jaunts for which public transport is pretty useless (at least for the places I prefer to go), so if I ALSO spent money on taxis (which I also HATE using) …
