I’ll be fair. I’m talking about heavy bike racers not all people who ride heavy bikes. I wouldn’t mind to have one myself.
And yes it’s chaotic across a whole class of vehicles , the scariest incident I had was with a bloody cabbage truck that was doing a 110 or whatever down the mountainside and tailgating my ass on that road . There was no margin for error, I couldn’t pull off and couldn’t bet that if I slowed down he wouldn’t just squash my car.
It’s an issue that is clearly getting worse due to the shear number of dickheads out on those roads (Beiyi etc.). The police should really get involved and ban, for example, all riding in convoy, as well as roadside photographers since this encourages showboating. Put physical barriers every two or three kms and get speed guns out there. Impound cars of repeat perps.
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Most appalling thing in driving in Taiwan for me is complete disregard of fellow drivers around them. You don’t have to break any traffic laws to create a dangerous situations.
Taiwanese driving etiquette:
- Actively accelerate just to stomp on the brakes a few seconds later not to let another car merge in front of you.
- Drive extremely cautions on a mountain road well under the speed limit without occasionally stopping and letting the traffic pass.
- Drive comfortably in the left lane on the highway that is intended for faster traffic and take overs, force other drivers to take over on the right on slower lanes.
- Match your speed to your traffic buddy next to you on a two lane highway until you reach your destination.
- Change lanes in front of a faster moving car and force them to break at high speeds.
- Do not use the on ramp to accelerate, merge into the highway with 60 km/h while the rest of the traffic is going 100 km/h. You can safe some fuel that way.
- During heavy traffic quickly drive into the intersection when the light is about to change. It is not your fault you are blocking the intersection when the light turns red.
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It’s New Taipei City…Run and administered by …***wits.
Looks like TaiTung is the place to avoid, unless you’re feeling like ending it all…
I’m thinking 2 things don’t mix very well:
aboriginal festivals with lots of drinking and mountainous roads
I have to disagree. I don’t feel reckless driving and racing is anymore prevalent in Taiwan than anywhere else. Malaysia is 100x worse in terms of reckless. Maybe less aggressive but they all have pretty piss poor cars that are so cheaply made they don’t have airbags to save money. But 100x less care for laws and pedestrians. I saw 3 major accidents in short time there, one with a car rolled upside down on the side of the road.
How much time have you spent on the roads mentioned above? Say on a Saturday or Sunday morning around 9 or 10 am?
Funny you should mention this. When I go back to England I notice a lot of very aggressive driving, speeding, etc., while the number of dickheads in Taiwan seems to be steadily decreasing (it used to be a good 30-40% of the drivers on the road simply could not drive). People are still crap at using their mirrors, but mostly I get the feeling that Taiwanese drivers have reasonable situational awareness and take reasonable care, and there’s only a smallish minority of blue-truck-drivers, spoiled rich kids, old grandpas and grandmas, who will eventually Darwin themselves off the roads.
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I think these threads get so much attention for at least the following reasons:
a) Taiwan is a fairly modern country and so the recklessness is a contradiction of sorts: we expect things to be bad in India, but not here.
b) Taiwanese are well-mannered, polite, etc. when you meet them face to face, but that’s not true for a good percentage when they get behind the wheel/handlebars.
c) The problems all seem so easily solvable. I think we have all imagined how enjoyable it would be to be mayor of a small town and you could do what you wanted with regard to enforcing traffic laws.
My two cents.
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Taiwan has a lot of issues with regards traffic, how anybody can compare the situation here with Western countries favourably ?
Percentage of folks who go through red lights ?
Speeding enforcement ?
Bus and truck driver behaviour ?
Racing on mountain and country roads on weekends ?
Driving on top of pedestrians on right or left turns ?
Overtaking behaviour , on highways and blind corners ?
Police enforcement ?
Yes Taiwanese drivers have better situational awareness of other 2 wheeled drivers, that’s about it.
Also there are very few traffic calming measures in urban areas. That’s another big issue, but separate somewhat. The roads are designed to speed between lights, not to slow down. The design of the roads, traffic light systems and pedestrian crossing is all to facilitate fast movement of traffic.
And comparing to the US? American police have you by the balls if you have so much as a broken taillight…Please.
Do American motorists routinely skip through highways undertaking and overtaking without getting pulled over? Do they blatantly drive through pedestrians on right turns or do they wait patiently ? Do they drive through red lights ? Would they allow crowds of weekend bikers and drviers to speed through scenic but populated areas week after week, year after year. Near the capital city too?
Rest my case.
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Malaysia is one of the worst in Asia, https://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause-of-death/road-traffic-accidents/by-country/ , Taiwan is far safer although way worse than the US or Europe.
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I’ve been here less than you but I’m not sure how that is related to what I pointed out: I don’t think that the regulation is very permissive with red plates, more like the contrary.
Also you seem to believe that the main problem on the roads is big bikes, but speaking of flipped over and crashed vehicles, I’ve seen far more scooters and cars fucked up than big bikes. True, there are also fewer red plates than cars and scooters, but you are pointing at this group as the main problem, when it’s not.
Speaking of which, I wonder why cars that are obviously prepared for racing are not subject to inspections every time they hit the road. some of them are absolutely ridiculous.
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You claimed that it wasn’t a pity that they relaxed the heavy bike rules.
But how would you know since you don’t know what it was like before that ?
I can tell you it wasn’t like it is now. It wasn’t at the same scale. Many folks were against making big bikes legal, precisely because they expected this kind of situation to develop.
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No, no, I said that BeiYi’s racing scene is back. I would also like to see harder punishment for reckless behaviours and racing. And I was comparing it with a few months ago, not with 15 years ago when red plates were forbidden.
Well then we are not talking about the same thing. It’s very unfortunate that Beiyi situation has not improved. I would like to use that road more often living nearby to it!
Apparently not, and also it doesn’t seem to be my fault in the case 
(And the Racoon rushed to like your misguided comment. Ahh, the hate haha.
Its always your fault, sorry.
Signed TG
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Taiwan under reports it’s road deaths somewhat as they need to die within a certain time , there are loads of scooter drivers in hospital as well in vegetative states (better health care system to keep people alive).