I found a video of something I’ve personally witnessed more than once in the mountains. Please someone explain to me how people can be so stupid?
youtube.com/watch?v=VoHOtB1TaUQ
They do this all the fucking time…IT’S A BLIND CORNER!!! GROW A BRAIN PEOPLE!!!
Darwin Award Winners.
Just cleaning out the gene pool.
My wife got her license through the usual mill, but basically I taught her to drive. She knows to do late apex cornering to improve visibility and reduce the chance of a head-on collision. If her (local) friends ride in her car they always critisize her for not driving like they do, ie make the curves as straight as possible by using both sides of the road.
“You’re making us carsick with all this unnecessary weaving!”
“You’re wasting time like this, just head straight to the corner exit!”
These same people also believe that when turning corners at traffic lights they should always change lanes while doing so. ie start in the left lane but cross to the right lane while making the turn. That’s what ‘real drivers’ do (according to these geniuses). :loco:
Basically, we’re pissing in the wind with this. It’s not random stupidity at work here, it’s a belief system that is supported with peer pressure. The majority of drivers believe (however erroneously) this is the correct technique and no amount of logic is going to change that. For example, did you know that kids are taught in school that where there is no sidewalk they are to walk on the right side of the road, with the traffic? :loco: You can explain to individuals that it’s safer to walk on the left (where they can see the oncoming traffic that’s about to mow them down) until you’re blue in the face, but there’s another generation of kids being taught the suicidal way right now. Who do you think is going to win?
[quote=“redwagon”]
Basically, we’re pissing in the wind with this. It’s not random stupidity at work here, it’s a belief system that is supported with peer pressure. The majority of drivers believe (however erroneously) this is the correct technique and no amount of logic is going to change that. For example, did you know that kids are taught in school that where there is no sidewalk they are to walk on the right side of the road, with the traffic? :loco: You can explain to individuals that it’s safer to walk on the left (where they can see the oncoming traffic that’s about to mow them down) until you’re blue in the face, but there’s another generation of kids being taught the suicidal way right now. Who do you think is going to win? [/quote]
That’s crazy. They teach them to walk with traffic? That doesn’t make any sense…at walking speed their direction with regard to traffic flow is irrelevant. So therefore the only considerable factor would be the safety of seeing what’s heading towards them. But I’m preaching to the choir here.
A few times I’ve pulled out onto a road and almost hit students who are walking three or four abreast. I took it upon myself for awhile to teach them the dangers of walking on the road like this and made it a habit of clipping the one farthest out. I don’t do this anymore so save your flames.
that video had little if any bearing on Taiwanese drivers/riders, that was just a guy on holiday in a country where they drive on a different side of the road to what he is used to, a genuine if stupid mistake… what the locals in Taiwan do is far worse, “I know there may be a car or scooter coming around this blind corner, if there is it will mean certain death or at the very least serious injury and financial upheaval for one or both of us… fuckit… actually steering around a corner is such a hassle, besides I’ve done it hundreds of times and nothing’s ever happ…” SMASH
it’s far from limited to mountain roads though… I see it every time I ride my scooter in the city, every time I ride the GS on the No.3, I’ve even seen it in the car on the freeway, with some arse deciding it’ll be easier to reverse back up the offramp onto the freeway after a wrong turn… It is as quintessentially Taiwanese as binlang stains on blue flip flops… but as I’ve always said, I recognise that the locals have the right to be unthinking slack jawed Neanderthals who behave with utter impunity for the social contract that defines civilised human society, but at the point where their right to be borderline retarded “me first” assholes effects my right to continue living, all bets are off… :fume:
[quote=“Mordeth”]They teach them to walk with traffic? That doesn’t make any sense.[/quote]Let me teach you one of my personal mantras:
If it made any sense they wouldn’t be doing that way.
I don’t know why they teach this (and I’m too scared to think about it very much), but ask any Taiwanese about it and they will confirm that this is indeed what they learn at school… and never question.
[quote=“plasmatron”]I know there may be a car or scooter coming around this blind corner, if there is it will mean certain death or at the very least serious injury and financial upheaval for one or both of us…fuckit… actually steering around a corner is such a hassle, besides I’ve done it hundreds of times and nothing’s ever happ…[/quote]I think you’re ignoring the bai-bai factor here. Everyone knows that if you burn enough incense at the temple there will never be another driver approaching the corner thinking the same thing. 
[quote=“plasmatron”]…but at the point where their right to be borderline retarded “me first” assholes effects my right to continue living, all bets are off…[/quote]Amen to that.
I was driving over the 7 on Sunday when we came up on some traffic around Lalashan. The guys in front of me were doing the racing line through blind corners as usual, while I hung back a little and stayed to the right for better viz. Interestingly, the car that eventually came up behind me did the same. I wonder if that was intentional, bucking the trend, or if he was simply blindly following what I was doing… 
[quote=“redwagon”]I wonder if that was intentional, bucking the trend, or if he was simply blindly following what I was doing… [/quote]I suspect the latter. We’ve mentioned a lot of different types of idiotic drivers, but one I don’t think we’ve mentioned is the drivers/riders who just stay right in your tyreprints all the time. You pull over a little to let them overtake, and they pull over too! Herd mentality I guess.
This is actualy waht my GF aunt do all the time and she newer crash witch suprise me.
She must have a deal with the devil or something, if it was me I would have more than 3 crashed cars on my record.
I a car run slowly infrom off me today and I changed line to overtake him with my scooter.
The a idiot behind me in a car instantly started to honk the horn.
Am I not alowed to pass others? I’m not suposed to get to work in time just like you?
I have started driving motorbike 11 years ago and car 9 years ago and I can not remember honking the horn at annyone annytime.
It’s rude and probartly not going to change annything, but pissing people off.
I promised myslef to tell him my honest opinion if he stoped by 7-11 or something.
I suspect this hapend often
youtube.com/watch?v=QWl-vLPL3UA
youtube.com/watch?v=ph333p_2y-4
youtube.com/watch?v=f4OTAi7l08g
youtube.com/watch?v=rozPA7_jyEs
Not strange when you look at how the training is for taking a license.
youtube.com/watch?v=OihdHlE5kto