When I posted this last, it seemed to have gotten lost in another thread. So here it is again. We all know that riding in Taiwan is dangerous, so it’s important to think about what we can do to continue riding and avoid accidents. Here is my 2 cents on how to survive the roads of Taiwan. Since everyone rides differently, we all need to develop a personalized methodology, but here I think is a good template of ideas. (in order of importance) I am interested in what other ideas or critiques people have as well, so please contribute.
#1 : Always pay attention to your surroundings. I always find myself put into danger when my attention lapses, maybe even for just half a second. Read and predict what other people are doing and going to do, and be on the lookout for the unexpected. I believe the more you do this, the more you are developing your intuition, and perhaps even the fabled “6th sense”.
#2 : Train yourself to react correctly and quickly to dangerous circumstances. Every time something occurs, think of the best way to approach the problem and avoid it. Then train youself with this knowlege to the point where it’s automatic. Ideally, you want to be able to perform the correct course of action without the need to think about it on the spot, like muscle memory. I find panic to be a huge obstacle to being able to achieve this.
#3 : Trust your vechicle and your skills to use it. Know what it and you are capable of, and know how to utilize them both to the best affect. Feel what your vechicle is telling you, and learn how to work with it. Also make sure your vechicle is in good working order. In my experience, good brakes of are particular importance. I can’t remember how many times I’ve been saved by them.
#4 : Ride in a predictable fashion. Decent riders can recognize what a person is doing, and adapt beforehand to the encounter with a planned approach. If you ride in a way which makes it clear to others, they will know how to avoid you. This is often upset when riders decide to suddenly change due to misjudgement or distraction.
#5 : Develop profiles for where you will be riding. Every road will have varying dangers and styles for approaching it. Understand the various patterns and rider behavior for each type of road. Each time you go riding, adapt your style for where you will be.
#6 : Learn from mistakes! Personal mistakes can be important wake up calls for correcting errors, and great chances for development. Even when it’s totally someone elses fault, there is almost always something you could have done to prevent or possibly avoid it from occuring.
That’s an excellent list–thank you.
Before driving, I used to prepare myself mentally by imagining that my entire kindergarten class of seven-year-old children had been given a random assortment of cars, scooters, and SUVs for their homework assignment, with the instruction to “drive like mommy and daddy.”
Eventually I realized that was inadequate, because mommy and daddy all drive like five-year-olds with a random assortment of tanks, bulldozers, and cement trucks, with the instruction to “drive like you want to start getting ghost money real soon.”
Now, though, I think they’re really driving like they want me to start getting ghost money real soon.
I need to get a sticker on my bike explaining that dead atheists have very little use for ghost money, so please go murder someone else instead.
Right. I’ve always treated it like a video game, in the sense that everyone else on the road is a drone of limited intelligence whose only purpose in life is to bring me down.
Five years no accidents! 
Except that one time I fell off all on my own in the rain, and the half-dozen times I’ve fallen off in carparks and outside 7-11s…
Thx Temple, I think u are on the path to become a great Rider… keep on going my friend
Thanks for your support omerjos! When I first came to Taiwan too, I felt it was just like a video game. But for me It was one of those where you race through traffic and disregard all rules. Then I had to remember that it was real life, and that if you have an accident, you’ll and others will get hurt.
what also helps is to get some guys together on a weekend and set up your own little training course on an empty carpark or closed-off roads (like the one in Danshui along the # 2). we did it last year and the response was great…
even better if you find someone who actually is an instructor AND is living in TW long enough to know the hardships there…
it helped me a great deal, 3 years riding and no accident.
have a great week, be safe
Actually there is a spot like that in yong he where kids regularly go to practice some more advanced aspects of riding. If anyone is interested, I occasionally go there to practice. Does anyone know of any other spots around taibei to do this? The one near my house was recently shut down for construction. Where is this place in Danshui?
i had to dig a little but google helped. have a look here.
it was a near perfect spot, maybe it still is - haven’t been there in a while, maybe construction of houses started already.
but even then, i can only stress the importance of good practice. we all still learn something new every day.
have a great day
Thanks for looking that up… I’ll check it out sometime.
I’d like to add to no. 6: Remember the places where you had close encounters, where you saw someone else had an accident (look for white chalk marks on crossings), where you have seen elder people, kids, or pets suddenly cross the street and so on. While accidents can happen anywhere, they often happen at the same places.
Also, make it a habit to look into your rear mirrors, the Taiwanese often don’t do it, which is stupid, cause a lot of danger comes from behind. If you wait at a red light and you see a big gravel truck behind you approaching a little bit too fast, get out of the way, FAST!
Wear proper protective clothing- shit happens and if you are properly protected you can avoid nasty abrasions, big bruises, impact fractures and twisted ankles.
Know your bike and yourself- Go to a race track and find out exactly what you and your bike are capable of and you will develop the harmony that is essential for quick evasive action you will also learn to react while under an adrenaline rush without freezing up. You dont have to race just ride around the track…
Know how and where to fall- accidents are just that, they are unplanned events and they just happen therefore being able to land how and where you want can save your life or nasty injuries. Ideally actually crashing is the best way to learn but not very practical unless you dont mind spending money on repairs, then go to the track and push your limits and fall, otherwise just spend some time thinking about how you could be active during an accident. Can you make a decision to separate yourself from your ride so you dont get tangled up in it? Where would you prefer to land when you come to ground (is there a post or oncoming traffic to avoid)? How will you land, don’t dive roll the helmet will snap your neck, shoulder rolls are better for airborne dismounts. Drop the bike and slide is better for a scooter than a traditional bike because it has some enclosure for your legs whereas a traditional bike will likely trap your foot and drag you with it until it hits throws you over then flips over on top of you.
Know your environment- ride on regular routes so that you can learn where the perils and escape routes are. Perils include other motorists and their garage entrances and sidestreets they come out of unannounced as well as road surface conditions given for different weather conditions also visibility day and night.
Prepare dont predict - Prediction is the tool of the high performance rider Temple does that and so do I, it is not actually the safest way to ride, watch the video Mordeth posted on the race topic and you can see Temple riding through traffic, do not copy him unless you are prepared for the consequences. Prediction is about making assumptions about peoples behaviour which is just risky if you are going for a small gap between cars and you happen to approach a nervous driver who in shocked surpise twitches the wheel you will become hamburger instantly, rather prepare dont predict, prepare yourself for the likelihood that the other motorists around you will take the worst possible action and be ready to react to that.
Try to ride in your own space- Do not linger next to vehicles, ride so that the space around you is clear, this can be done by riding faster or slower than the rest of the traffic just know that if you choose to ride faster then your reaction time has to be quicker and you need to understand your limits, if i have the power then I like to accelerate out into the traffic lull between the cars I have been waiting at the light with till it turned green and the cars waiting at the next traffic light but if you dont have that power rather wait for everyone else to pull away and follow them sedately , you will be surprised how relaxing it is to ride there, as well as how you always seem to catch up to all but the most motivated speedsters at the next light.
Is this a good spot for me to post up the video of Temple riding through inner city traffic doing double/triple the speed limit? 
I know it is quite ironic for me to be posting about how to ride safely… I’ve not claiming to be a perfectly safe rider, but i’m glad to see some helpful advice being passed around. It is very foolish to race around on the streets, and I try not to do it much anymore and focus on the track. Obviously it can meet in very dire results, I’m actually quite lucky to still be alive today. I’d like to stay that way, so its important to focus on ways to ride(dangerously or not) and not wind up in the hospital.
Woah, you took my comment way too seriously. I was just kidding around. I preach riding safety to everyone. The truth of the matter is most people ride around doing half the speed limit, with their headlights off, in the rain, no working brakes, and their tires half inflated…etc…and then crash and complain about how dangerous Taiwan is. :loco:
My neighbor was riding along doing 10-20km/hr and hit someone’s door as they opened it, fell off her scooter sideways and hit her head hard enough to kill her. She died.
And then there’s me doing 274km/hr on public roads ( a while back on my CBR) and doing ok (knock on wood).
Your safety tips are totally valid. Just because you are good at riding fast doesn’t make you any less an authority on safe road usage…quite the opposite actually. I’d rather here safety tips from someone who rides fast and never gets hurt than from someone who does half the limit.
No.
Close call today. Driving my scooter in Zhongli going to Taoyuan, had to wait in a big group for green light. Dangerous intersection, or rather, a Y-intersection and me coming from one of the two top legs (I hope that’s clear). The whole group started driving as the light turned green. My position was at the right side (outside) of the road. Suddenly a scooter came at high speed from the left. Cut across the whole group, but as I was too close already he hit the front of my scooter and we both went down. Where did he come from? He came from the opposite direction and went through the red light big time to turn left. A suicidal manoeuvre really.
The result is limited damage to my scooter but only broken plastic pieces. Sprained two fingers and two small bruises on my leg. I think his fall was more terrible because of his speed and he had more damage, but we both could get up on our feet quickly. He started mumbling ‘because…’ and pointing where he came from and he was quite shaken up. Stupid, he just went through red at a high speed and knew it perfectly well. I told him I knew he went through red. I pointed at my damage, but a ‘sorry’ was all I got. A moment later I just drove off… I don’t care what his damage was… I could not care less about people going through red… and he was probably hoping he won’t have to pay up. I just hope he learns from this.
Can’t say I was wrong except for not expecting the impossible. But a big intersection requires your attention in front of you and the road coming from the right… and there was no left. Sure, you must always look everywhere, but I thought the other scooters to the left ‘covered’ for me… they were very lucky in fact. The one thing I will do different from now will be to drive more inside of the group holding back when a light turns green, meaning letting others go first. Sounds selfish, but those who want to be first will always carry more risk.
I have a few months more in Taiwan and intend to make it out alive. I got my warning today…
what’s he going to learn from that? only that it’s OK to run a red because there’s no consequences.
The implicit assumption here is that some other course of action might actually have taught him something.
I’m not so sure.
The implicit assumption here is that some other course of action might actually have taught him something.
I’m not so sure.[/quote]
He must have felt he was immortal driving through red lights all the time. And yesterday he found out that going to far will hurt him… or others. In this case, he was the most hurt one and that’s a good thing. However my finger is still swollen 
If I had been in a hurry just a bit, it could have ended real bad for me. I just recommend to not drive a scooter here.
I hope the mods put this one in the list of sticky topics. There are more riders than drivers in this forum, I think, and I hope this thread will benefit lots of riders, especially the newbie ones.
What are the most common causes of scooter/motorbike accidents and how do we avoid them?
I guess the first tip is to always wear a full-faced helmet when riding… 