They have very bad safety record and had a fatal accident a few days ago. They are called fly dog for a reason… cause you will probably fly like one. The only advantage to them is low price but UBus (tonglian) is cheap as well and probably safer…
I don’t think I have ever been on any bus in Taipei that I felt completely “safe” on…I usually sit in the middle of the bus…away from the engine in the rear and away from the “glass” observation window in the front…
I saw the Apple Daily story yesterday and they had big color photos of the dead still on the freeway. Can’t imagine the families of those people would be terribly happy about that. The driver, among the dead, apparently fell asleep at the wheel.
It seems there are bad bus crashes on the nation’s freeways, or down ravines at mountain resorts nearly monthly, if not weekly.
I’ve been warned by Taiwanese friends about those buses,apparently the drivers are paid according to the number of runs they do,hence the speed and tiredness…
Thanks for the heads up rahimiii… i’ve only ever taken Dragon bus to Taizhong and airbus from the airport. Aside from ALWAYs getting a seat with a broken tv console, and airbus always smelling like mildew, I haven’t had any frights.
Not to be bleak or morbid, but I am awfully surprised there aren’t more domestic jet mishaps from Taoyuan to Kaohsiung yearly. Seems to me the situation would / could be quite a bit like the bus troubles, with tons of cheap flights daily or weekly.
good to hear the govt is cracking down on the violaters of safety regulations. the govt bus company drivers do ONE round trip a day between Taipei and Kaohsiung (if they are assigned to that route). As a driver who often does a Taipei to Kaohsiung only , i feel thats tiring enough. to do a roundtrip? is really tiring !!! I dont think they should be allowed to do a roundtrip.
Perhaps, but the city buses are a lot slower nowadays now that they’re equipped with governors that prevent them from accelerating beyond a certain speed. Sometimes I want them to go faster at places like Bei-An Road or the Macarthur Highway, but they can’t, and as the driver accelerates the governor kicks in, leading to a seasickness-inducing, jerky, speed-up-slow-down-and-repeat motion. :raspberry:
I caught a bus to the Taipei Airport from Taichung back in 2003 and suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning. Even if the bus did have a crash, I wouldnt have felt a thing
Made the flight home revolting… Ill catch a train next time… Err… to the airport i mean
I’m aware of the risk factor however there is a far greater risk of a serious accident in Taiwan from much smaller transport than buses and planes. I know far more people who have had serious scooter accidents in Taiwan (and motorcycle and car accidents in my home country) than bus or plane accidents. A fellow university student was in a similar situation to Ma Ke earlier this year(on life support due to a scooter accident) and didn’t make it. It did put me off riding a scooter. However I’m not going to tell others that they shouldn’t ride a scooter.
With any type of public or private transport(including walking) there is a risk factor involved. The unrealistic solution is staying inside forever.
Compared to the long distance buses in Thailand(often driven and crashed by drivers on speed ) and a few other countries Free Go’s record probably isn’t all that bad.
Incidentally I wore a mask in the classroom during the SARS scare.