This
You can see it when waiting for the red light at pedestrians crossings on the big roads in Taipei.
Bus stops in the middle lane. It becomes green pedestrians light, so of course the buses driving that road have a red light and have to stop for the 60-90 seconds or so…. And these old ladies starts running across the pedestrian crossing to not miss the bus… why run? The bus has a red light for 60-90 seconds and you have a short two lane crossing to catch it, 5 seconds max
A scarcity mindset. It’s clearly been hard for these people to unlearn it.
Guy
To be honest, I sort of did think that! But I’ve never presumed to test it.
The elders here really live life with a ‘getting one over’ everyone else philosophy.
They think they are winning by acting like this but they really are just doing themselves in.
My gfs dad literally cannot understand why i would walk around the block to the supermarket instead of riding a scooter. He would only walk in the park. He sees no benefit to walking otherwise. Even tho he is in awful shape and really needs some physical activity.
The doors are designed kinda like elevator doors, in that it opens if it meets a certain amount of force.
Doing this is also illegal and delaying trains by obstructing a door is actually something you can get fines or prosecution for.
To be fair, this is Taiwan. He has a point, but no sidewalks.
yeah, hopefully enough to avoid chopped grannies, at least 
It could also be the desire to get a plum seat. Getting on a bus, I once had a middle aged woman practically karate chop me to push my Easy Card away from the swipe machine so she could rush ahead of me (she was in line behind me) and run to get the seat I was planning to take.
I’d say it’s at least equal parts, or more, entitlement mindset. We see this a lot with the confrontations over Priority Seats on the MRT. That old lady wasn’t even remotely concerned with the possibility of delaying the entire train of passengers if she was successful in getting the doors to pop back open so she could waltz in. This instead of waiting the eternity of 2-3 minutes for the next train.
Been smart enough never to test it. Fixed it for you. 
Yes, I didn’t think it would cut her in two but I knew they didn’t pop open like elevator doors do and they did close pretty hard on her. I’m not sure but I think the outer doors are what closed on her and the inner doors closed on the umbrella, which is why that got stuck.
And I also meant it is common for people to stick their foot in a closing elevator door (particularly students at my school) to open them to get on, which is mostly acceptable. For one reason it only takes a couple of seconds and elevators usually only have a few people on them.
But mainly, closing elevator doors are not proceeded by loud warning whistles and don’t have a double set of closing doors with imposing strength.
As I posted, I sincerely hope this was the case for her. At minimum to teach her not to repeat the offence.
The difference with elevators is you don’t have a second elevator that will arrive 2 or 3 minutes into the future and crash into this one, so this is why doors don’t just pop open like elevator doors and sticking your foot into the door just to open it is REALLY FROWNED UPON.
This side note really belongs in the bus thread, but I’d add that as a general rule I square up in such a situation. Oh did my elbow hit your ribs as you attempted to force your way by? That’s unfortunate isn’t it.
Guy
Today I noticed they actually have a video running on the in-car screen showing their procedure for when something (a dropped keychain in this example) gets trapped in the door
I think this update got lost, but in September the Central News Agency reported the red line extension past Xiangshan, the new 「廣慈/奉天宮」 station right by tiger mountain, is “87% complete”, they plan to open early next year.
That one station extension has reportedly been the hardest engineering challenge in the MRT’s history. I don’t know enough about the geology of that part of Taipei (extending east of Xinyi into deepest darkest Nangang) to understand why.
Guy
I also heard something like that, and skimmed headlines like “metro department assures timely development despite setbacks” or something. I don’t know enough about geology but one article mentioned nearby buildings sinking by 3-5cm due to the construction. Not a good thing when it’s being built right under a social housing complex.
There are underground water issues too, if I recall correctly.
Guy
They say the station is double the size of a normal one? Any ideas why - perhaps additional overnight stabling of trains?
Honestly I don’t know. But as the southeast terminus of the Red Line, I’d guess they want or need some extra space?
Certainly that neglected corner of Nangang has been one of the more underserved areas in the city, transport wise. I can’t imagine there is huge pent up demand for travel there–though no doubt property prices around that new station will have skyrocketed.
Guy
Picture and updates are at the government site here.
My guess for the extra track length is for train repair/cleaning. I haven’t seen anything about future red line extensions but that could also make sense.
In terms of the station itself, I think they want to serve the community housing, as well as the high schools around there, so they end up extending farther along the road. Kind of like how Da’an station has a long and winding road with tons of stairs to get to HSNU.