Yes
You already have a thread on this: 
When it comes to providing emergency medical assistance such as CPR, for sure there is.
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That must be why I got one then.
The only issue I’ve had with mine is that unlike the one in that picture, the end furthest from the handle is tapered to a point. A rounded point, not sharp at all, but still it ended up poking a hole through the end of the sheath.
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You could get yourself some stab gloves. If by the off chance you come across a nutter on the MRT ready to use a knife (probably more chance of winning the lottery). Or maybe walk round with a stab vest like you are in London.
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Looks like somewhere in Asia. Canada:
Police officer says normal umbrella and backpack won’t save you in a knife attack.
The typical people on the MRT, elderly, office people, students, tourists, etc. will never be able to fight off a determined lunatic with a machete. But what can you do if you have just a backpack and an umbrella with you? Use it as good as you can. Kick the attacker in the groin and knees if possible, while he is targeting your backpack or umbrella. That is probably most effective. I think you can do nothing about the initial attack, when the attacker suddenly pulls out a knife and stabs someone sitting who is most likely looking at a phone. One problem is, the attacker is probably full of adrenaline and will not feel much pain while being in his rage.
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Doesn’t have to be a machete, just a dagger would pretty much down everyone in a train car, as shown in that video, or the USDC shank tank, and many more pressure tests on video.
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Before we get carried away…
Hey Chatty, what are the chances of getting stabbed while riding the MRT in Taipei? Can you give me an estimate?
ANSWER:
Yes — I can give a rough “1 in X” style estimate, but I’ll be explicit about the assumptions so the number isn’t misleading.
What I used as facts
- There has been one widely-documented random knife/stabbing spree on the Taipei Metro system (the 21 May 2014 attack). Wikipedia
- Taipei Metro’s recent annual ridership is on the order of hundreds of millions per year (Wikipedia lists ~918 million passengers in 2023; Taipei Metro publishes yearly ridership statistics as well). Wikipedia+1
- The system reported a cumulative ridership of over 4 billion passengers by 2010 (useful to check order of magnitude for long-term totals). data.taipei
How I converted that into a “1 in X” number
I estimated a probability per single passenger trip by dividing:
(number of random knife attacks on Taipei Metro trains during the period)
÷
(total passenger-trips over the same period)
We know the numerator = 1 (the 2014 attack). The denominator (total passenger trips) is the hardest part — ridership has grown, so I give a plausible range using two reasonable average annual ridership assumptions across the period 1996–2024 (≈29 years):
- Conservative (lower average ridership): assume ~500 million passenger trips per year on average → total ≈ 500 million × 29 ≈ 14.5 billion trips.
→ Probability ≈ 1 / 14,500,000,000 ≈ 1 in 14.5 billion. - Less conservative (higher average ridership): assume ~800 million per year on average → total ≈ 800 million × 29 ≈ 23.2 billion trips.
→ Probability ≈ 1 / 23,200,000,000 ≈ 1 in 23.2 billion.
So a reasonable, transparent estimate is that your chance of being on a Taipei Metro trip that experiences a random knife-attack is roughly on the order of 1 in 10–30 billion per trip (I give the 10–30 billion window to cover uncertainties in the average annual ridership and the exact counting period). Use of the 2014 attack as the only event is what makes the numerator = 1.
Important caveats (why this is only an approximate guide)
- We counted only one major/random knife attack on the system (2014). Smaller incidents or assaults not widely reported, or incidents off-train (on platforms, in stations), may not be captured here. If you count non-fatal/less-reported assaults the numerator could change. Wikipedia
- Ridership varied by year (growth, COVID dips, etc.). I used a range of plausible averages; the exact historic cumulative passenger count would allow a more precise figure. english.metro.taipei+1
- This is a historical empirical estimate, not a model of future risk. One random mass attack already occurred (2014), so the event is possible — but historically very rare.
- The above number is the chance a trip experiences a knife-attack somewhere on the system, not the chance you personally are injured — the latter is far lower because only a small fraction of people on an attacked train are harmed.
Short plain answer
Based on one documented random stabbing on the Taipei Metro since it began operations and the system’s very large cumulative ridership, a single-trip chance of a knife attack is extremely small — on the order of 1 in 10–30 billion per ride, with the exact value depending on which ridership assumptions you use.
How does that compare to dying in an airplane accident?
ANSWER
Short answer: based on the rough “1-in-X per trip” estimate we made for the Taipei Metro (using the single widely-reported 2014 mass stabbing as the only system-wide random knife attack) versus modern air-travel fatality rates, a single passenger boarding an airplane is on the order of 700 to 2,200 times more likely to die in a fatal air accident than a single Taipei Metro trip is to experience a random knife-attack.
How about compared to crossing the road in Taipei?
ANSWER: … [ChatGPT needs a few more days until it has added up all traffic accidents in recent years]
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That looks wrong to me.
It seems to be dividing the one event by the number of passenger trips, but to answer the question properly I think it should be dividing the number of people who got stabbed by the number of passenger trips (or passenger distance traveled, or passenger time spent or whatever). More than one person was stabbed in that 2014 attack.
What it did isn’t even correct for the modified question it was trying to answer (“your chance of being on a Taipei Metro trip that experiences a random knife-attack is roughly on the order of 1 in 10–30 billion per trip”). For that, the numerator should be the number of people who were on the train then, not one. Or keep the numerator as one and change the denominator to the number of journeys (i.e., the number of times trains went from one place to another, not passenger trips).
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Well, even if you switcheroo the numbers, we will most certainly still be in the ball park of “chance of getting stabbed while riding the MRT is one in a billion or so.” I think I will take that chance and opt to not wear medieval armor or ninja umbrellas. 
Yeah, I’m definitely not saying it’s likely, just saying don’t trust this kind of calculation…
I was a lot more concerned when you talked about the machete wielding lunatic 
So… bring a long board?
I guess some attackers will scope out a carriage first and take the one with the most vulnerable people in it. If there were a rugby team in the carriage they’d likely skip it. But then I’m not insane and thinking rationally , so maybe it’s just chance. That’s in reference to a knife attack not an AR 15 or other rifle.
Premeditated attackers, like the punk that perpetrated the Taipei Metro attack definitely scoped out the carriage.
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