The solution is cars, yes cars. Giant cars, 5 by 10 meters, surrounded by thick rubber guards. The large dimensions will force fewer vehicles per area of street, and the rubber walls will increase driver safety. It will be like one big bumper car ride. Less pollution, less blood on the streets,…fun for the kids and family alike, also
Oh my
[quote=“BlownWideOpen”]Good to see some passionate debate here about the scooter problem.
Ducked suggests re-annexation with Japan, and agrees too that electric scooters are a part of the solution, but root cause of problem is the drivers, not the scooters. Also, that more cars is definitely not part of the solution
Keep em’ coming people[/quote]
That wasn’t “passionate debate”. It was mildly acerbic comment.
I was commenting acerbically because I was mildly irritated, because you are mildly irritating.
It isn’t necessary to repeat an edited version of this back to the ether either, but I suppose you can if you want.
[quote=“Ducked”][quote=“BlownWideOpen”]Good to see some passionate debate here about the scooter problem.
Ducked suggests re-annexation with Japan, and agrees too that electric scooters are a part of the solution, but root cause of problem is the drivers, not the scooters. Also, that more cars is definitely not part of the solution
Keep em’ coming people[/quote]
That wasn’t “passionate debate”. It was mildly acerbic comment.
I was commenting acerbically because I was mildly irritated, because you are mildly irritating.
It isn’t necessary to repeat an edited version of this back to the ether either, but I suppose you can if you want.[/quote]
Oh boy
[quote=“headhonchoII”]
Sometimes I feel though that wealthy business owners and politicians are happy for their employees and the electorate to ride cheap polluting scooters because it keeps demands for wage increases down![/quote]
You see, this is really it in a nutshell! This is what it all boils down to at the end of the day. SlowRain, you’re right, it IS a 1% vs the others root cause issue. I wasn’t thinking straight.
Years of toxic fumes have messed up my thought processes. That and cheap 7 11 beers
Business owners are happy to keep people riding scooters as it means that the government keeps the subsidies on gasoline, fearing public disproval. The ones who really benefit from cheap subsidised fuel are the factory and fab owners. Think how much tsmc must use
You are infinitely more tolerable when you’re being funny instead of the pseudo-moderator. But, seriously, cut the running commentary. You don’t have to reply to everyone, you know. It makes you look needy.
By the way, I’m SlowRain. Happy to make your acquaintance now that you’re being a little more balanced.
Great fun SlowRain, I enjoyed the joust. And ended up learning a lot about the topic I didn’t know before, as I scrambled to research the data
I’ll be prowling the forum waiting for my chance to pounce again. Better watch out!
In with the new blood!
“Electric-scooter leasing company Skuro Moto (史庫諾) chief executive Frank Chen (陳孟偉) never expected he would run his own business at the age of 24.”
This idea should fix the lack of noise on e-scooters:
Ha! very creative, love it.
Also just found these guys. ex-HTC guy and also factory is in Taiwan
gogoro.com/smartscooter/faster
“Riders can customize the colors of the dashboard, lights and sounds, such as the audio of the turn signal and the lock/unlock function controlled by a key fob. The LED headlight, from Philips, dims when the scooter comes to a stop and brightens when it accelerates.”
You can just see what’s going to happen in the future hey. One big tangled swarm of flashing LED lights and customized sounds.
20 years from now we’ll be back on this forum debating all the noise from customized e-scooters and how all the LED lights hurt our old eyes …ha!
I cannot understand the problem of lack of noise with e-scooters. At least if scooters are confined to streets and pedestrians are able to walk on sidewalks which unfortunately is asking a bit too much in Taiwan.
Noise is essential or there would be even more quiet carnage.
I rely on my ears a lot when I’m driving. And, remember, full-face helmets block a lot of quieter noises. It’d be like everyone listening to MP3 players while commuting. I don’t think that would add to the safety. But, how does the cycling world deal with it? They have the same problem when they’re in close quarters. If they’re just relying on slower speeds, then, yes, something must be done with electric scooters to alert others nearby to their presence.
That one has been mentioned already. No word on the price, and it’s still not a close enough substitute for what’s available now. Scooter riders may have to take a bit of a step down, but that one is just the equivalent of a 100cc right now, isn’t it? There’s no way that could comfortably handle two-up riding, nor weekend trips. However, I could see that being tested out by female university students and recent graduates here.
[quote=“headhonchoII”]Taiwan has enough power generation cspbleity if we add all the under utikised power plants, most
Of them are coal powered though. I’m all for nuclear power especially for the no4 to be opened now the funds have been spent. However gas powered plants could fill the gap between coal and nuclear in a reactively cheap and less polluting manner. I don’t think scooter charging at night would add massive loads to current power demands, and the switch would be fairly gradual and dispersed.
[/quote]
First off, just remember that the Taiwanese have already spoken out against the fourth nuclear power plant. That can, and may, change in the future, but we’re not sure yet.
Secondly, no government has ever advanced their country by underestimating future growth. I operate under the assumption that any country will use more electricity in the future than it currently does now even if they don’t introduce electric vehicles. I believe your opinion is that Taiwan underestimated the need for public transportation all those years ago, and so now we’re suffering with polluting scooters in the interim. Am I correct? However, look at your suggestion if the nuclear power plant doesn’t go live. It dangerously parallels your complaint about Taiwan’s handling of public transportation: a quick and dirty solution. And, you used the word “could” again when talking about gas-powered plants, showing uncertainty as well.
I’m not trying to pick apart every suggestion that gets put forward, I just want people to take a step back and look at things from a little bigger picture, that’s all.
I rely on my ears a lot when I’m driving. And, remember, full-face helmets block a lot of quieter noises. It’d be like everyone listening to MP3 players while commuting. I don’t think that would add to the safety. But, how does the cycling world deal with it? They have the same problem when they’re in close quarters. If they’re just relying on slower speeds, then, yes, something must be done with electric scooters to alert others nearby to their presence.[/quote]
Nonsense. Noise is another input but you don’t change direction without looking. I wear a full face helmet and can only hear the loudest scooters and cars. It doesn’t matter if they are electric or a new scooter with a proper functioning exhaust. I can hear almost no noises inside a car except horns and big trucks.
The answer is not electric vehicles anyway. The answer is reducing the ownership of private motorized vehicles in cities and giving more space to bicycles, cars and public transport. Electric vehicles are just a stopgap solution which will then need to be overcome.
Actually there are few foreigners or Taiwanese who have looked into the power supply situation as I have. That’s not so much a boast as much as the reality is the vast majority have never researched this area. Taiwan has extra capacity in terms of coal plants and can easily add capacity if necessary. I became concerned about this problem while in Taichung and realising how bad the air pollution was but that nobody was talking about it. That’s not a good thing though. In the land of the blind the one eyed man is King.
I’ve looked down from da dun mountain at the biggest coal power plant in the world and the destruction of the coast. I’ve seen how the Miaoli government has allowed a private coal power plant be built in a sensitive environmental area beside a popular beach resort (they then built an indoor swimming pool as the cloaks couldn’t go to that beach anymore). I’ve seen and photographed how the air pollution built up and built up day after day and sometimes how a toxic cloud would suddenly sweep over the city (I lived on a hill over Taichung). myself and my family got bad allergies from the dirty air. Peiole
Go around with masks on their faces but don’t do anything about the problem. They say it’s from China. Pathetic. Many have grown up with severe pollution and think it’s normal!
I would rather they extend the nuclear plants operations and open no4 but I recognize public option is against this. The best option is to invest in some gas plants and massively scale up solar. No the BEST option is to scale back energy use especially in the big refineries owned by Formosa and CPC. Formosa have their own dirty coal plant in Yunlin. I Always say could because I understand the populations ignorance about their own environment and also politicians and Taipowers corruption. For instance you see 反核
Signs all over Taiwan but no 反空氣污染 , people are extremely ignorant of their own environment. They don’t know that air pollution takes YEARS off your life and that it even degrades the IQs of your kids! They know it’s a problem but they don’t understand the cause of the problem nor the magnitude or source of the problem nor even have imagination to change their mindset and goals to deal with the problem.
Yip, spot on.
These issues are more a matter of will and desire now more than anything else. The tech, the money, the skills, the resources, the knowledge are there.
This is where documentary and film makers, media, artists, courageous business leaders and politicians, and so on need to step up to the plate. Some good stuff has been done last several years. We need more!
Look at how things are presented. Take the 7pm news tonight on one of the channels:
5 minute bit on a sexy, petite 155cm girl in tight jeans, dancing the sexy dance next to her 重型車 heavy motorcycle (what’s that, 250cc?) – presented as cute, sexy, good, wow yay…
cut to 10 minute segment on amazing new smart cars/bikes type vehicles, connected to devices and the internet
cut to 5 minute bit on the 1-2 meter wide pedestrian footpath somewhere in city that scooters and bicycles and pedestrians are all trying to share
This 20 minutes of continuous “news” did nothing to connect the dots and offer any deeper insight