As always, in Taiwan with heavy persistent rain, I find people’s driving habits take a turn for the worse, if such a less than zero approach can be even factored in.
At any rate, there’s far more cutting in at intersections, even less rear viewing, and scant regard for the smaller vehicles. Buses & Tractor trucks seem to greatly increase speed, and king of the road syndrome demands even more. Same with taxis.
Do you think rain makes people in general worse drivers? Or does it only serve to accentuate the inherent bad driver syndromes within a particular locale?
I have not driven a vehicle in a non third world country for at least 5 years.
Is there a place left where folks actually slow down due to heavy rain?
Here in the Bay Area, everytime there is RAin, everything goes MUCH MUCH SLOWER. People drive a lot slower (as they should).
And because it doesnt rain hard here often and doesnt rain often. When it does rain the roads can be real slick. Just the other day at one particular intersection I plain couldnt stop and went thru to the middle of the intersection past tHE STOP sign. My RSX has ABS and I was doing bout 30MPH before hitting the brakes (normal at that place). Plain sailed halfway thru the intersection , nothing to do but be a passenger. Good thing thats a quiet intersection and no other car or person was there.
dim light from the rainy weather combined with water droplets blocking vision through windows already tinted darker than far side of the moon means that when it’s raining “Ah-Huang” is even further divorced from the reality of the world outside his Cefiro… reckless maneuvers that are ordinarliy carried out with impunity despite the threat to other road users are now carried out twice as fast, blissfully unaware that other road users even exist… all rain seems to do is up the ante of the standard mantra that “everyone else on the road must be responsible for compensating for my piss poor driving ability”…
Nicely written!
A Cefiro, doesn’t Mr He drive one of those?
I wonder if that happens to him!
From my venture in a blue truck with said chap, he did not morph into standard blue truck driver mode. Mind you, it wasn’t raining!
The best thing about the rain is that allows an indignant rider much more menace in the rude comeuppance body language department. I bang on their fiberglass, RA,ta TaT!, with reckless abandon, tossing in an impressive array of a few well placed gestures 'n’awl! Knowing full well that the evil perps won’t get out of their vehicles in a hurry.
Of course, one chooses one’s targets carefully. I usually get the angle in on the fourth or fifth car, enraging all the rest in their queue for an even more haphazard cutoff route.
Huzzah!
I also find it wise to stay as far away from scooters when it’s really pouring out. Lack of vision, poor scope, and excessive front braking, cause many a tumble on some rider’s part. I’ve had a few close calls where there was not much room to manoeuvre as one drove up on some poor sod with an open faced helmet, whose just suffered a face plant, or some other hideous malfeasance of their own making… AcK!
…or on the other hand…the extra dim interior ambiance created by the 99.9% tints and lack of sun on rainy days, will make for viewing DVDs on the dash mounted LCD much better!
I find the driving to be about the same, except that the fact that people don’t slow down to compensate for the poorer visibility and poorer traction, which means that they become more dangerous than normal. But I haven’t noticed more people cutting others off, or stuff like that.
Anyway, you can’t get worse than zero. I love Taiwan and the people here, and rarely make any negative generalizations, but on two wheelers, people here are suicidal, and in four wheelers, they’re homicidal, whether it’s raining or not. If I were president, I’d import Michigan’s entire police force to crack down on people here until they got a friggin’ clue.
I find the driving to be about the same, except that the fact that people don’t slow down to compensate for the poorer visibility and poorer traction, which means that they become more dangerous than normal. But I haven’t noticed more people cutting others off, or stuff like that.
Anyway, you can’t get worse than zero. I love Taiwan and the people here, and rarely make any negative generalizations, but on two wheelers, people here are suicidal, and in four wheelers, they’re homicidal, whether it’s raining or not. If I were president, I’d import Michigan’s entire police force to crack down on people here until they got a friggin’ clue.[/quote]
Well said!..The Michigan police force or any other police force that actually enforces the law to everyone would do the job right!
In Taiwan, everything has a purpose. Once you accept that and stop fighting the system, it will help you enjoy the island a lot more.
It worked for me. [/quote]
Wise advice… While i’d like to believe everything works itself out with a purpose, its not always easy to see why. People are always going to do things that you don’t like, the less you let it bother you, the easier your life will be.
Although I do wish people would drive more carefully in the rain. I don’t think everyone realizes that tires grip really badly in the rain. For those who do and still drive crazy, sometimes i’m impressed that they can ride like that and still stay alive.
You ever see a cop running a turn-right-on-red trap when it’s pissing down? You know that radar and laser speed cameras don’t work in more than light rain?
Ah-Huang knows these things and takes advantage.
