I was at a restaurant today. I parked on a red line with my scooter. As I got off my scooter I saw a guy (plain clothes) on a scooter with a little computer recording my plate number. He was gone before I could ask him what was up, although it was very obvious.
What can I expect to happen from this? A ticket in the mail? What happens if I don’t pay?
Usually when I park illegally, in front of my building, I get towed.
Just curios.
If he was a government official of some kind and your bike is correctly registered to your address, then yes, you’ll probably get a ticket in the mail, which I believe you can pay at any post office. I think the amount is something like 300NT.
If you don’t pay, the amount goes up and if you leave it long enough, eventually your bike can be impounded although I haven’t actually heard of this happening to anyone. More likely is that it would cause hassles and you’d have to pay when you wanted to do anything official with the bike such as transfer ownership. By that time the amount could be quite large - I don’t know whether there’s a limit, but certainly above 1000NT.
I think sometimes those guys with the handheld computer things are just doing random checks for stolen bikes. It might be nothing.
Maybe you should stop parking on red lines.
Just the other week there was someone else worried they might get a ticket for turning right from the left lane. D’oh, what do you expect ?
Just pay the fine and stop being so stupid and selfish.
I believe he was just checking for stolen bikes. If it was for illegal parking then they would of used a camera as they normally send a picture with the fine.
They usually get you for fines on main roads. I generally go for back alleys as there is less likely that a much hated agent of traffic hell will venture into such places.
Considering the complete lack of adequate parking facilities I believe this was a bit heavy handed against this poster. I believe Taipei, a city of 3 million people, has less than 100,000 private and public parking facilities.
CYA
Okami
There definitely is a lack of parking spaces in Taiwan. Sometimes I find myself TEARING my scooter out of it’s parking spot because its holding the weight of all the scooters in Taoyuan county!
As for the “you are a selfish parking-pig post”, hold-on while I grab my tissue!
They don’t always tow, but if you’re getting ticketed, he’l leave the ticket on your bike. If this happens, you have to pay. It happens a lot in certain areas, eg Idee/Chungshan MRT.
If I’m going to be gone mroe than 5 minutes, I always park legally, It’s not usually that hard.
Brian
Nothing was left on my bike. I assume he was checking to see if was stolen.
You mean they leave a parking fine ticket on your bike? In Taichung, if you’re in certain legal parking spaces, somebody will come and put a 20NT ticket that you have to pay as a parking fee, not a fine. But if you get an actual fine it will be in the post, probably with a photo.
It Taipei they sometimes put the ticket on your bike and then send it to you after (with a photo).
Taizhong? I just thought they let you run around all lawless like 
Brian
Thanks for the info. He didn’t take a photo! So, I am clear and freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
[quote=“Bu Lai En”]Taizhong? I just thought they let you run around all lawless like
Brian[/quote]
Not any longer. A friend got a very strong telling-off the other day for no license, and narrowly avoided a whole heap of trouble.
I’ve offered to lend him my copy of the English driving rules/test questions. I’m hoping that he’ll do the right thing and take the test but no great signs of interest yet.