Am I alone in thinking that the sidewalks were made by drunken people? I cannot tell you how many times I have tripped, taken false steps up and down, making a complete comical sight of myself!
“Hey look at the funny foreigner! He cant even walk right! Always tripping on sidewalks and not even drunk!”
After my 2nd week in Taipei I made it a concious effort to look down when walking on the sidewalks…I wonder how people in wheel charis get around? come to think of it…I never saw anyone in a wheel chair in Taiwan, ever! hmmmmmmmm
Ever been to Kaoshiung? Try not bumping into scooters there while doing the pedestrian thing. The fact that you sometimes can walk on a sidewalk somewhere in Taiwan is amazing in itself.
Local people in wheelchairs are usually followed closely by Filipino maids.
The sidewalks in Taipei have improved imensely over the past 15 years, especially when CSB was mayor, fortunatly the program seems to have survived and sidewalks around the city are still, althoguh achingly slow, still being upgraded to a walkable condition. Imbedded sccoter parking, genuis…jsut not enough of them. That alone has taken many of the scooters off the sidewalks. Too bad their aren’t more of those. Shame, however, that idoit shop owneres in the heart of the city get away with altering the portion in front of thier store to match the ill concieved designs of thier boutiques. Worse this is alwyas the portion underneath the floor above or with any type of awning to protect you from the rain. Having said all that, progress has been made and it gets a lot easier walking the streets of Taipei every year.
I’ve only lived in Taiwan six months. I think Taipei is so much easier to walk about on the sidewalks compared to Hsinchu or Tainan. More Scooters and more up and downs in these two places. In Hisnchu it is much easier to walk along the street
What is the worst city in Taiwan for the Up and Downs steps of the sidewalks?
Looking where you are walking? A novel idea! In all seriousness, if I want things the way they are at my family home I will simply make a trip to the airport. In the meantime, I enjoy every moment and difference that this culture can teach me. The infrastructure is but one component. By the way, try some of the more remote areas of Latin America for sidewalk observations. Walking along in front of the shops and find yourself about to step off a 1 meter drop into a pond of cow and horse piss. I think they are pretty good here.
I just read my post and have come back to add this edit - I guess I am feeling a bit pissy tonight and my post showed it. Sorry. Enjoy your time here because you will look back at some date in the future with memories of even the less than perfect things you find here.
Folks in wheelchairs use the road ways. Traffic seems to accomodate them.
They certainly can’t use the vital “economic trade zones” known elsewhere as sidewalks.
[quote=“Enigma”]Looking where you are walking? A novel idea! In all seriousness, if I want things the way they are at my family home I will simply make a trip to the airport. In the meantime, I enjoy every moment and difference that this culture can teach me. The infrastructure is but one component. By the way, try some of the more remote areas of Latin America for sidewalk observations. Walking along in front of the shops and find yourself about to step off a 1 meter drop into a pond of cow and horse piss. I think they are pretty good here.
I just read my post and have come back to add this edit - I guess I am feeling a bit pissy tonight and my post showed it. Sorry. Enjoy your time here because you will look back at some date in the future with memories of even the less than perfect things you find here.[/quote]
My post was not meant to be read in a negative tone…just was observing another one of Taiwan’s unique, albeit fairly dangerous, quirks. I’ll be the first to admit that sidewalks are altogether missing from a lot of neighborhoods where I come from. It’s small things like the sidewalks that you remember, and even miss, when back home in the states or wherever you come from. I only thought of it when I was walking outside today and noticed, for some bizaar reason, that the sidewalks were uneven…immediatly I thought of Taipei and for a brief moment I could smell the aromas of the streets of Taiwan…just reminicing, thats all
[quote=“derek1978”]My post was not meant to be read in a negative tone…just was observing another one of Taiwan’s unique, albeit fairly dangerous, quirks.
Hope no offense was taken. [/quote]Aww hell…somebody is going to search long & hard to find a reason to be ‘offended’ no matter what gets posted.
We all know what you’re referring to.
It took me a while to make the connection of wheelchairs cruising down the street and sidewalk trade zones.
Don’t worry about it.
Sidewalks? What are those? Oh, you mean the moped parking lots!
How can I watch where I’m going? I have to look down to avoid the dogshit,
in front of me for mopeds, mopeds behind me, cars passing me on the left, cars passing me on the right driving the wrong way, and trucks backing into me. Meanwhile you can’t walk 10 feet with out a step up or a step down, and they often water them down to make them slippery.
If Taiwan has any pretentions to being a first world country, they should start with the sidewalks.
[quote=“Toe Tag”]Sidewalks? What are those? Oh, you mean the moped parking lots!
(protion cut from OP- chou)
If Taiwan has any pretentions to being a first world country, they should start with the sidewalks.[/quote]
Toetag…would you know progress here if you saw it? Taipie govt. started on the sidewalks long ago. And there is a big and continuing improvement. Accentuate the postivie man, bald cynicism while it has its place is not so funny all the time.
OK, well, Taipei has cheap fast DSL here and I heard that in a couple months the Taipei-city-wide wifi will be operational. And the public transit is pretty good (if you can make it over the sidewalks to get to it).
Still, labor is cheap here, they have plenty of rock, and its two-thousand-frigging-oh-six already, sidewalks don’t require rocket science. I’m sorry but the crowds and the sidewalk insanity just freak me out! I still find that moped users often park selfishly and block off pedestrians. Did I forget to mention the street vendor generators and power cables on the sidewalks.
I make a conscious effort to look down when walking around Taipei to avoid stepping in dog shit.
Yes the sidewalks are bad, but I agree with those who commented on the improvements. You’ll notice after a while, derek, that the city is making slow but steady efforts to re-do the sidewalks.
Actually, some of the worst sidewalks, in my opinion, are the fanciest – the marble floors outside fancy department stores, that are treacherously slippery in the rain. I screwed up my knee slipping on one of those when I first arrived on this island. :fume:
[quote=“TainanCowboy”][quote=“derek1978”]My post was not meant to be read in a negative tone…just was observing another one of Taiwan’s unique, albeit fairly dangerous, quirks.
Hope no offense was taken. [/quote]Aww hell…somebody is going to search long & hard to find a reason to be ‘offended’ no matter what gets posted.[/quote]
I don’t know why you say things like that? I really should just block you. I don’t know why half the board didn’t block you after saying that. Sheeeeesh! :fume:
Taipei isn’t exactly a backwater town. You’d expect some problems with not having sidewalks in a small out of the way place, but in the capital city?
I bet the Taiwanese themselves find it annoying, and they’d probably find it a lot more annoying if they spent a couple years in the US or Canada (I can’t speak for other Western countries, not having been there) and then went back to Taiwan. One thing you have to say for the US and the Canucks is that we/they have a fine public highway/street system. I see nothing wrong with wishing other people would copy that while they are import some of the less attractive parts of our culture as well.
Again, we ain’t saying that Western life is perfect, or that there aren’t things back home that are worse than they are here. But we have seen it done better and what’s wrong with saying so?
Tight. Crowded. Small streets. Bad building and construction design and management in the primary years of Taiwan’s swift development. Western countries had the luxury of years of development and space.
The present, even former governments can’t really be criticised for not having pavements. Taiwan had to adjust to an incredibly good business opportunity some 30 years ago and pavements didn’t come into the equation on the “making money” agenda.
Now things are geting better, at least in part. I have seen a huge improvement in Kaohsiung since when I used to live there. Taipei is getting slightly better, especially around MRT stations and busy areas.
In the more out of town areas, it’s still a nightmare but you can’t expect everything to be done over night.
I spranged my ankle in Taipei before…it as B-B-B-BAD…you guys are right…your eyes have to be looking at the road and scanning the traffic when you walk in Taipei…it is kinda tiring…but that is the lifestyle here…
The most dangerous part of the sidewalks are the scooters. Indeed, the most dangerous part of the streets are the scooters. The greatest contribution to inner city pollution is probably also the scooters.
I hate the scooters. Recycle them and ban them, I say.
Sidewalks in Taipei are much better than any other city on the island, at least since about 5 or 6 years ago when they started redoing all the sidewalks and getting a lot of the scooters off.
