Here are some very simple questions. I always thought the answers were pretty obvious, but this is Planet Taiwan, and I suppose I could be very wrong here.
Despite that people do it anyway, is it or is it not legal to (a) drive and (b) park on sidewalks?
And by the way, I live in Kaohsiung. So I have another question. Are those massive sidewalks in K-Town bike trails or extensions of the scooter road? I had an argument with a scooterist about it, and he angrily insisted that sidewalks were made for scooter use, just like all other flat surfaces on this island, you know, park grounds, apartment lobbies… rooftops…
If there’s a motorcycle parking space painted on the sidewalk you can park there but you’re not allowed to drive to the space on the pavement – you’re supposed to push your scooter to the space.
I once saw someone actually doing this.
Actually, on Keelung Rd between the start of KuangFu N. Rd. and up to Hoping E. Rd in Taipei, I have seen the police regularly enforce the push your scooter on the sidewalk policy and I have seen people who have seen the police standing there and have jumped off their scooter and started pushing it. I thought it was strange when I first saw someone pushing their scooter until I worked out what was happening. I have also seen lately, people who will get off their scooter and push it across the pedestrian crossing at traffic lights so they can run the red light… That is a laugh… They will try anything, they must have watched Mr Bean…
Unless there is a specifically demarcated area, it’s illegal to park a motorcycle on the street. That’s what pavements are for. Streets are for pedestrians.
I’ve never seen such rules enforced here in Taichung. As soon as a new sidewalk is built, it gets filled with scooters in no time, like flies on sh*t!..pedestrians have nowhere to go and it’s a constant zig-zag between parked scooters and roadside kitchenst to walk anywhere in this town.
Are these laws even written anywhere? Where do you find or know about them? These laws certainly never get enforced in Kaohsiung, and I’m not sure if it’s because people don’t have access to this information or if it’s because the police are simply useless here. Perhaps both.
you forgot ‘sideextendingyourbusinessintoapublicareaperfromingadangeroustasklike weldingorcuttingmetalimpedingpesdestrianstryingtowalkbyandnotgivingafuck’
Me and my really bad Chinese note that those not-really-sidewalks under overhanging buildings are called 騎樓, and 騎 means “ride” … meanwhile searching “sidewalk” in MDBG suggests “便道” and gives “makeshift road” and “shortcut” as alternate meanings for it …
if there is enough road to ride scooter on side walk, sure follow the others. In Taichung sidewalks are places to park scooters except Costco’s side front enterance.
I used to remove the scooters off my front porch at my previous place … once I really threw one off … because they repeatedly put it in front of my door … it ended up, upside down on the street … never put the scooter on the porch again … the problem that remained, dog shit every day
Today we walked on the sidewalk in Taoyuan and then I see an older guy riding on the scooter at the sidewalk behind me…firstly, intuitively, I wanted to move out of the way, but then I realized and said it aloud “He should not be riding on the sidewalk, I am not moving out of his way!” maybe 50 metres or maybe even more, he was still riding on the sidewalk, so I stopped, turned to him, looked at him and asked him in English “Why are you riding on the sidewalk??” there were two guys doing something on a parked small truck on the side of the road doing something, maybe cleaning and when one of them saw what is happening, he was like “HAHAHAHAHA!” and the sidewalk scooter rider talked to him in Chinese and got pissed by losing his face by being ridiculed by fellow random bystander and told me “Take it easy, okay?!” while quickly riding inside of the nearest underground residential parking lot, which made me doubt he actually lives there, since why would he park outside few dozens metres away if he actually lived there…
Also I saw a guy peacefully walking his small dog in front of us and a woman with a child in baby carriage the other way towards us, and the only hurdle between them and the sidewalk scooter rider was me…
How pathetic someone needs to be to not care about what their lazy ignorant arrogant behaviour can result into?
