Taxis...cheap or expensive?

I lived in Korea for a couple of years and I took taxis everywhere. They were dirt cheap in comparrison to what it costs in North America to catch a cab. What about prices in Taiwan? I know traffic can be slow in Taipei and that can get expensive, but what about taxis in general? Thanks for an info you have.

probably in-between. You can go across town, about ten to fifteen miles, for about 250NT. I just hate to give money to these a-holes.

Indeed. Same with Korean cabbies.

Compared to south east asia they are expensive, but compared to Hong Kong or Japan they are very cheap.

Yep, would also put them in the middle bracket, perhaps we can call it reasonable. Though most deserve to be paid less due to their driving habbits.

I use taxi every day to go to the office in the morning, lazy and late as I usually am - which costs me NT140-160 each time (Guting to near Breeze).

[quote=“Rascal”]
I use taxi every day to go to the office in the morning, lazy and late as I usually am - which costs me NT140-160 each time (Guting to near Breeze).[/quote]

You must have nerves of steel, Rascal!

But I suppose it gets the adrenalin flowing, which is a pretty effective way to fire you up ready for the day’s work.

I’d say relatively cheap compared to Japan, US, and other Western Countries.

Try to take a cab in Manila, Bangkok, or elsewere arround Asia and you feel that TWN taxi drivers are actually

  • friendly
  • cheat very seldom
  • drive like other Taiwanese
  • not greedy
  • know their way
  • often switch the radio to ICRT because they want to please you as a foreigner (they don’t know of course that it bothers me)

With 95 % of my taxi rides in Taiwan, I didn’t have any problems … I wouldn’t call them a-holes!

Most of them are very polite…I should know, I go by taxi to and from work. I prefer the ones who drive fast and I even ask them in my broken Mandarin if they do…especially if I am getting in the cab 2 minutes after I was supposed to be at work.
My taxi cab Chinese is getting to be very good. I can’t order from a menu, but dammit, I can tell a driver exactly where to go and where to turn (buildings, directions, objects such as traffic lights, etc), and what roads to take. I even worked out a route to work that cuts NT$5 from my normal fare ($150 to $145). Sure it’s ten times more than what I’d pay to take the MRT and then the bus, but 1) I have a place to sit on my commute without worrying about what slimy/sticky/greasy/foul-smelling thing I just stuck my hand on to keep from falling, 2) I can have breakfast on my way to work, 3) I don’t have to get shoved or squashed, nor do I have to maneuver through a couple hundred people rushing the opposite way with only a 5-kg backpack as a weapon, 4) I get in and don’t get out until I am exactly at my destination, and 5) it goes too fast to be someone’s gawk-of-the-day for more than the span of a red light.

It’s expensive, but it’s well worth it.

I used to take the taxi the last few kilometres to work every day and also found most drivers to be polite and friendly. In the city it’s hard for them to go too fast even if they want to as traffic lights are not synchronized.

I’ll always remember the driver who said the usual “Oh, your Chinese is very good,” after we had spoken a bit, but then, when he found out how long I’ve lived in Taiwan, laughed and said, “Oh, sorry, no, your Chinese is very bad.”

Most taxi drivers here are fine, compared to say Wellington, NZ. The big differences are that most of them here know their way around the city, have a basic understanding of how their vehicle operates and what the rules are, and are more likely to speak English.

Stragbasher wrote: [quote]Most taxi drivers here are fine, compared to say Wellington, NZ. The big differences are that most of them here know their way around the city, have a basic understanding of how their vehicle operates and what the rules are, and are more likely to speak English.[/quote]

Ain’t that the truth. Last time I was back in Auckland in 2001 the majority of drivers were recent immigrants with dodgy English and very little knowledge of their neighbourhoods. You often have to tell them - in pidgin English - how to get to your destination. Anyone who thinks I’m exagerating hasn’t been to Auckland recently.

I’ve had good experiences with taxi drivers here. They usually know what they are doing and don’t try to fleece you. Apart from the ocassional betel-nut chewer, my only complaint is them turning the radio to ICRT.

Me too, but they’re only trying to be nice. Had fun figuring out where we were going the other day, with a driver who spoke just enough English for his job. When I complemented him on his ability he replied “I listen to ICRT” I suppose it’s good for something then!

Also, driving a taxi here is a Darwinian process. The genuinely bad drivers soon get weeded out. Natural selection ensures that, whatever your wimpy western prejudices might tell you, most taxi drivers here are actually pretty good drivers.

Ha! My wife and I used to take a pedicab everywhere we went locally. It took longer but was a more interesting trip. You youngins know what a pedicab is, dont you?

If you are in the taxi they are fine, but I have had too many near death experiences caused by these fools to have any love for them. They should all get bird flu and die of SARS for all I care.

Cheap if you are making tons of money, like most posters here…
Expensive if you are making $30,000 NT a month at a local company (me me me) So yeah. Most Taiwanese think it is expensive to take a taxi here that is why MRTs and buses are always crowded. (IMHO)

30k a year!? Get out of there ASAP. Well, even it’s per month I can understand that you consider taxis expensive if you had to spend 150-300NT each day on them.
Actually in the evening I mostly take a bus back, it stops near my office and more or less in front of my house.
In the other direction it takes a slightly different route so it wouldn’t be convenient (in the morning) and I don’t like to take the MRT in the rush hour either, too crowded.

Except the driving habbits (which apply to non-taxis, too) I have no complaints, drivers in Taipei are mostly friendly and never tried to cheat me. Even had some who asked for a lower fare because they made a wrong turn and it took longer to get to my destination.
Initially I was a bit upset when I reached my office, cutting in and out of lanes, jumping red lights, turning by forcing their way (straight into the opposite traffic) and nearly running over pedestrians - but I guess you get used to it …

THE PRICE OF TAXIS WENT UP TODAY. :frowning:

I’m lazy. I take a taxi to and from work every day, rather than walk three blocks to the bus stop and four blocks on the other end. My wife’s been nagging me to start taking the bus occasionally. Taxi usually costs me about NT$140 or $150 each way. This morning it was NT$170. That’s over US$10/day round trip. Maybe I’ll start following her advice.

In 1984 a thousand NT could buy you a nice lunch at a restaurant for two, a movie for two and a nice dinner at a nice restaurant for two as well. AND several taxis around town.

Course you might say that 1000 then is worth 3000 today and yes you can still do all that for 3000 NT today. So I guess that its all relevant. However, I got 350nt/hour teaching english then. So that would be 1050nt / hour now to put things in perspective.

But at least flights are cheaper now. A roundtrip to/from SF or LA from TAipei costs bout 35,000NT then. Stilll about 35,000NT.

A 100cc Yamaha or KWANGYANG motorcycle was bout 26,000NT. And most cab rides were bout 40 to 70NT around town.

You mean around 3,000 Vietnamese dong? That sucks.

HG