So I am pulling into the narrow alley right beside my building today and there is the normal assortment of madness, people and cars and scooters everywhere, but still enough room for me to drive into the alley safely.
I noticed a guy on his scooter looking at me to my left but because he was no more than one meter away and I was already in motion I figured he would let me pass and then he would go…nope :loco: This guy tries to cut directly in front of me while I am moving ( he was at a standstill, having just bought some milktea) and I bumped into his exposed leg…didn’t touch the scooter!
I guess my front-end walloped his leg and hip pretty good but apparently I hurt his pride even more. I said in Mandarin “What are you doing?” as it was clear I would have zero time to stop. He just looked at me and cursed and drove around behind me. I yelled at him that it was his fault and he just drove away with a pained look on his face.
What is it with these people? Not all of them, but some of them think just because they decide that they are going first and that is the end of it means that everyone will stop for them? What an idiot. There was no way I could stop, let alone the shock of this guy pulling in front of me at such a close distance. Sheesh!
But ya know, despite the fact that I almost dislocated his hip today, he will probably do the exact same thing tomorrow in the same place.
Probably. Except next time maybe it’ll be a blue truck doing 90kph, and the last thought that goes through his head will be “but what did I do wrong?”. Some people are just determined to prove Darwin right. Nothing you can do about it except blow off steam on Forumosa.
Just remember that nothing is unexpected on the roads. If something is physically possible, and sometimes if it’s not, some idiot will try it. Stay out of their way, and stay alive. If they want to write themselves off, that’s nobody’s problem except their own.
I really think they simply do not get it. I think it is genetic (and call me racist if you will, I adore Taiwan and its people and am always standing up for the place and people on this forum) but I really think it is. In America we talk about “Asian drivers” and well, after having lived in San Francisco for two years I really believe there is something to it. Having lived in TW for a year now, well…
There is something, inherently different about their spatial awareness. The dude didn’t even realize it, it simply did not commute in his sensory perceptors and brain.
I really think they simply do not get it. I think it is genetic (and call me racist if you will, I adore Taiwan and its people and am always standing up for the place and people on this forum) but I really think it is. In America we talk about “Asian drivers” and well, after having lived in San Francisco for two years I really believe there is something to it. Having lived in TW for a year now, well…
There is something, inherently different about their spatial awareness. The dude didn’t even realize it, it simply did not commute in his sensory perceptors and brain.[/quote]
I don’t think it’s genetic. I think it’s a trained behaviour. Asians in the west aren’t bad drivers if they’ve been there for multiple generations.
We (especially North Americans and British) spent our childhood in/around cars for hours and hours. Many of us also played organized sports (increased peripheral vision, reaction ability). Sitting and practising writing characters thousands of times in your childhood instead of playing outside or playing sports probably has the opposite effect of tunnel vision and decreased peripheral abilities.
It comes down to government forced training, mostly in Western countries you have to pass a “on the road” in public test. However in Taiwan you have to do a bunch of maneuvers at 10 kph or under. That in no way is how you drive on the road. It means you can park your damn car but nothing else. My wife, while living in the USA couldn’t drive however, she does have a Taiwanese drivers license.
Same thing with the scooter test here, drive super slow to show your balance, stop, go, done. That doesn’t say you can drive in Taiwan’s real life traffic.
I thought when I saw your title “I hit a guy literally on his scooter you meant it.” I have done that literally many times, I have kicked cars for pulling out, hit cars windows with my fists, pushed other scooter drivers, etc… If you drive in Taipei or any other busy place in Taiwan your bound to run into assholes. I just lose it when someone really pushes themselves i.e. driving the wrong direction, pulling out when they really know they shouldn’t, pushing their luck even for Taiwan. I have kicked many a bumper in my time and slapped a few helmets. Never had an accident though even after over 5 years of driving here. And my aggression has been warranted and hence the reason why no one has gone crazy on me. I have never had the privilege of having a taxi driver go to his trunk or anyone else try to push a fight. When their wrong their wrong and when it effects me I let them know it.
DJK
I fully agree with you.
BUT
A lot of those assholes have cameras now so don’t be so trigger happy. Those activities could be considered hit and run or some bullshit assault/slander law. I have seen it happen.
Those motherchuckers eventually get it up the ass really deep-a nice scar, a funny limp or a whopping payout that the whole family has to chip in for. What goes around comes around.
Yep I wouldn’t get into hitting people unless really provoked. At least I wouldn’t do it very obviously and I would take a breather first. I have a short fuse but have never hit anybody on a scooter/car and only slapped a few car hoods and thrown chips at people going through red lights. Which was rather fun to see them avoiding the flying snacks winging their way .
[quote=“baberenglish”]DJK
I fully agree with you.
BUT
A lot of those assholes have cameras now so don’t be so trigger happy. Those activities could be considered hit and run or some bullshit assault/slander law. I have seen it happen.
Those motherchuckers eventually get it up the ass really deep-a nice scar, a funny limp or a whopping payout that the whole family has to chip in for. What goes around comes around.[/quote]
I don’t live in Taipei anymore pretty happy about that. The assholes had cameras before, the situations where I employed leveling tactics would be very hard to argue in court. Their cameras always would have showed them in the wrong and they don’t show what goes on beneath the front hood. Kick away lol. Helmet motorcycle cams, don’t care. A little pat on the back of the ole head won’t kill them. And when they face you with their camera you say Pai Say Pai Say, I thought you were my friend. just make sure to give them a good whack so they know, because if they fucked up they already know it. Everybody saves face.
Whoever wrote the little captions that appear under the username is a genius. It perfectly correlates to your Taiwan stage; you really are a gaozhong liumang!!
He deserved that! and if it does it again he will deserve that too!!
There are two very distinct things areas at play (and a bunch of other things that would make my post way too long).
Population density. I often wonder if things are magnified by this problem. The probability odds are dramatically increased, so as Finley points out if it’s possible (even physics defying possible) it will happen and the chances of it happening in the urban areas of Taiwan are vastly higher.
Training/safety awareness/rules/enforcement. So far the tests to get people on the road have been very easy. Historically, this has enabled Taiwan to have a large mobile workforce and have a positive effect of the economy. The test doesn’t cover much on safety, in fact I don’t think it covers it at all. In general safety awareness isn’t taught much in any aspect of life. The test does cover all the same things as other tests in the world (by test I mean driving test). The attitude towards those rules seem only to apply when taking the test and bare no relation to actually using the roads. The on road test would change that to some extent, but it would be hard for a new driver to keep those habits when all around are breaking them. The only way here is strict enforcement. The problem with that is the Taiwanese often view the police as a money making machine and say the tickets are only for police revenue. So if the laws were to be upheld there would be a huge social outcry and the indignity would be too much to suffer. Much like the driver you hit, his indignity was his right, he has no idea or no concept of the danger as no one has ever taught him and he will never believe a stranger is right. The stranger is right though!
Bottom line is the Police need to get serious. Zero tolerance. Ignore all the comments about how they should be fighting real crime. Have the strength to reprimand someone and stick to the law and not emotion. I believe things will have to get a lot worse before we see this. So stay safe.
Would also like to point out that many many people in Taiwan do drive safely and carefully.
At least make a real life test, my wife with a Taiwan Drivers license can’t drive on the fast highway in the USA, she is very scared in busy traffic. Stopping when she shouldn’t, going when she shouldn’t, and she still can’t change lanes safely after 4 months of practice. In Oklahoma, 16 year olds have to do 6 months training. They have to have a “trainer” parent or professional teacher sign a contract about their time driving 40 hours I believe. I say this because Taiwan, Taipei has a close relationship with Oklahoma. There is an agreement that I can exchange my license for a Taiwan drivers license. It is the only state in the USA with this agreement. If Oklahoma requires 40 hours drive time along with classes it should be assumed that Taiwan would do the the same. Of course, we know better, just keep the guanxi established during the vietnam war.
She just has trouble shoulder checking and blind spot checking. She ran someone off the highway and that was the last time I let her drive without an instructor controlled car. We spent about 12000 nt for lessons for her, she is better but I couldn’t say she would make it a week here without crashing.
Probably. Except next time maybe it’ll be a blue truck doing 90kph, and the last thought that goes through his head will be “but what did I do wrong?”. Some people are just determined to prove Darwin right. Nothing you can do about it except blow off steam on Forumosa.
Just remember that nothing is unexpected on the roads. If something is physically possible, and sometimes if it’s not, some idiot will try it. Stay out of their way, and stay alive. If they want to write themselves off, that’s nobody’s problem except their own.[/quote]
Probably. Except next time maybe it’ll be a blue truck doing 90kph, and the last thought that goes through his head will be “but what did I do wrong?”.
[/quote]
This is the single thing I hate most of Taiwanese driver/riders. Even when they pull the most stupid s**t possible, they still have no idea of the consequences, nor they realize what they did wrong when they have an accident. I bet most think they should have gone to the temple more often :fume:
Sometimes I just want to take a hammer in Taiwan and hit a car when I cross the street. I think they would just run over me, even though the cross walk light is green. Actually two weeks ago at the light on the Bitan bridge a guy on a scooter hit the gas at the red light, even though the light was red and almost hit a guy on a bicycle. I have no idea why he pushed the accelerator even though he clearly had to stop. I was standing at the 7-11 watching.
I honestly can’t think of a single person I’ve met who hasn’t been in an accident. There was one month where four of my coworkers got into scooter accidents. Every month I’ve been here at least one student has been in a scooter accident. one girl had a huge scab that covered a third of her face. most people on the street also have some pretty gnarly scars on their arms or legs.
Yesterday someone from the opposite lane swerved into my lane twenty feet away from me because the person in front of him was slowing down. Then this fucking piece of shit had the nerve to honk at me to get out of the way. All because he couldn’t wait for the person in front of him to turn. So I flipped him off. won’t do anything but whatever.
Every Taiwanese person I’ve asked has said they wish everyone else would follow the rules, but then they go outside and start driving in the opposite lane or turning right on red without yielding, etc…I’d be so much happier if I didn’t have to drive here.
i used to be a road rage person while driving or riding in Taiwan but the rage is just simply all gone as i’m traveling in China… you won’t be able to tell the traffic is right or left lane…i called it whatever-you-like-lane that you can do everything on streets or even highway… yup, you can reverse, backward or even parking on highway… so if you are having difficulty of the traffic in Taiwan, spend some time in China if there is a chance. i’m pretty sure you will feel much better when you get back to Taiwan.
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