[quote=“Ducked”]I showed the guy a map, and he seemed to have no fucking clue what it was.
My strong impression was that the 2-dimensional representation of three dimensional geographic space was a concept that, for him, was a few thousand years too early.[/quote]
Wow, and I thought my experience must have been unusual. I was supposed to go to a friend’s house. I showed FOUR DIFFERENT CAB DRIVERS IN A ROW a map of where I wanted to go, which was RIGHT NEXT TO A MAJOR MRT STATION, and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM had NO FUCKING CLUE of how to read a map, or what one was, or what the mysterious glowing machine with the picture with the squiggly lines on it was.
I finally gave up and called my friend, and he talked to the next cabbie to explain that it was in a common, well-known location and the cabbie didn’t have to worry about the strange foreigner with the magic box. Who promptly ran red lights, ran down pedestrians, and ran all the other vehicles off the road. I came out of the back of that cab 30 minutes later in a daze, wondering how the hell we’d survived the trip.
And that’s not even to get into the whole “maps in the MRT” thing. THIS IS THE FUCKING ORIENT, people, why can you not ORIENT your maps so that the same direction is at the top all the time!??!?!?!
I spent ten minutes figuring out which exit I was going to crawl out of, and which direction I’d have to turn from there to get where I was going. Then just as I was about to walk out, I noticed that the “north” arrow was pointed left-down-left.
90% of my cab rides here have been fine, with one or two idiots along the way. Most drivers here are very helpful, I find. Tonight marks the first time I’ve been straight up dicked over by a driver. I got in in Qidu, and asked to go to Nangang Train Station in Chinese (normally when I do this, I have them stop at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center MRT that’s on the way and get out there instead). He indicated he understood. This costs a maximum of $300 NT, usually more like $250, and about 15-20 minutes. The two main ways to go are Highway 5 and the freeway. Driver takes the freeway, and about 20 minutes later I notice that we’re not anywhere near the usual markers I see when we’re getting close to the station. I ask where we are, and he motions as if to indicate he is getting off the freeway soon. He does, and we’re in bloody Neihu. Still, I chilled for a few minutes, figuring that maybe he misheard but would drop me closer into the center of Taipei and save me time anyway. This is not the case. After another 10-15 minutes I get antsy, and demand to know where he is taking me. He laughs at me. Eventually, I notice that we are near a brown line station and yell at him (I do this twice) to stop. The meter was at $500 NT! I paid, took down his number, and left. I was at Dahu Park Station. I figure that he was more than likely going to take me to Nangang Station via a circular route so he could charge me more than twice the usual amount of money. UGH! I was utterly furious.
For me the main positives of cabs in Taiwan are the prices and the ease of finding them. Beyond that… arghhhhhh.
It is true they are on average clearly better in Taibei. But even then it is not a given. I once almost came to blows with one when he started very nastily chewing westerners out in Hokkien and assumed I would not understand. I had only given the intersection I wanted to go to in Mandarin and then started talking with a friend who was with me in English (my mate had lived in rural places in South Taiwan for many years and was also OK at understanding Hokkien).
China cabs on average very bad but even cheaper than Taiwan. But give me Shanghai ones (other than for availability) over Taiwan ones any day. That said there I have encountered more than a few who displayed minimal driving skills. I once rode in one where within about a km the driver had stalled 4 times. I asked him how long he had been driving? 4 days. Then he stalled again. On a railway crossing. At which point I finally flipped out at him and suggested I drive (OK, not legal and stupid for me to suggest but certainly safer) or I get out and not pay the full fare as we had not yet traveled the distance that came with the starting price. He agreed to the later with no arguing.
Another time I was in China with a foreigner who was there on his first trip. It was a rainy day and we were on a long ride (between somewhere in not down town ShenZhen and some factory in a Northern part of DongGuan). We saw 4 or 5 accidents. The other foreigner was completely flipping out and wanted to change cabs but I was convinced that the driver was one of the best by the standards there.
I have had a few really crazy experiences in the South of Taiwan with cab rides. Once before I had a license (they made me do the written test in Chinese then and I had failed many times before I passed) I was talking with a cab driver saying I wish I could have a car like one that just passed us, but I had still could not get through the license test. He instantly replied “do what I did, buy your license!”. He was serious. And went on to explain how he had done so. The weirdest part was he actually seemed to be one of the best/safest drivers I have encountered.
Another time someone ran a red light and hit the cab I was in then sped of. The cab driver was like, damn… he did not have number plates. I (correctly) said yes he did. And he instantly started driving at lunatic speed even for Taiwan cab standards. Anyway after quite a few minutes of chasing him he said “he got away”. And started to ask me which way I wanted to go back to where I was going. He then rounded a corner and the hit and run car was jammed firmly stuck on the raised strip between the scooter and car lane. Right in front of a police station… The hit and run driver was clearly drunk (and still there) as the police had heard the crash and run out to see what had happened. The look on everyone’s face was priceless.
I am used to Taiwanese having NO clue about reading a map so that does not freak me out, and most of the time I know where I am going anyway. But for driving safety… !@#%$^&(*) I am sorry but Taiwan is SO far behind Singapore, Japan, HK… OK, sure China is worse but Taiwan still has a ludircrous driving for cabs. Driving around blind corners on the wrong side or the road, insane overtaking, running red lights… It is like it will always be normal in Taiwan other than maybe Taibei. On top of that free Binlang from hell smell, total random selection for the condition of the cabs and plenty of drivers who appear to have only just been released or escaped from gaol (jail). The current fad of adding in car TVs can only make things stay bad for driving standards.
Mongolia and Vietnam were the worst I have struck for cheating but this could partly be due to speaking Chinese and not the languages of those countries.
Sorry to hear that. So did you report him? This one is definitely a bad apple. You should have just paid him the usual $250 and walk away. Don’t just write down his number, write down his name too if you can, and let him know that you’re taking it down. Back in the day when they had to press the day button for the day rate, I noticed once that my driver had pressed the night rate. I promptly took out my pen and notebook and said out loud his name as I jotted it down (even asked him matter-of-factly how to pronounce one of the characters). He got really scared, apologized profusely and begged me not to report him (claimed that he had hit the night button by mistake). I didn’t report him but said I would pay what I usually pay. He gratefully agreed.
Many times, A-Fu and other friendly cab-drivers give me a 5 or 10 NTD discount if the meter hits 105 or 110 and if paying with 2 bills
Sometimes - and more the last 6 months then ever before - some shmuck tends to offer a non-requested city-tour.
As to take a taxi after midnight in Taipei, it has become a real Bonanza. Some charge 10 NTD extra - and one tried to pull me a leg asking 50 NTD (on a trip of 110…)
Anyone could tell me what the real / correct midnight surcharge is ?
As far as I know it’s 20 NTD.
And as a matter of fact I had a very nice taxi driver the other night who eventually asked me how to say this “night surcharge” in English, because he had run into troubles with foreigners because of that. He also showed me his handbook where it was all written down. I advised him that it would be a good idea if he just posted a little sign at the back of the front seats so that people are already informed about any surcharges.
He also gave me a 5 NTD discount, I might add.
-they are insanely cheap
-they get you where you need to be in a hurry
-they’ve fucked off a bit on forcing the seatbelt issue
-they’ll fuck off if you don’t want to chat
Anyone who complains about cabs here is being a dick. HOWEVER, every once in a while you get a right prick of a driver, but remember, road rage in TW is miserable. If I am running errands and in my car for more than two hours I wanna kill a muthafakka, afford cabbies the same empathy.[/quote]
In my home country of vancouver canada…i now drive for transit. I have learned to be patient and tollerant driving in richmond and the down town east side (world famous for heroin adicts and junkies) i dont like driving here in a car…and scooters are justnplain fun. But if i had to drive a cab or a bus here for a living i would be … dead of a heat attack or someone else shooting me.
I cwould commonly tip cab drivers here before they even turned on the meter…100nt…and they were always awesome. I also waited for the fastest looking race taxis and asked for a quick ride home from the bar. Always a laugh.
Man, slightly off-topic, but this drives me completely crazy. A couple of times I’ve gone hiking off in completely the wrong direction from an MRT station because I didn’t notice which way North was pointing on the map. Now that I’m used to it, I can often be seen leaning over at right-angles in front of the maps to make them line up with the one in my head.
Man, slightly off-topic, but this drives me completely crazy. A couple of times I’ve gone hiking off in completely the wrong direction from an MRT station because I didn’t notice which way North was pointing on the map. Now that I’m used to it, I can often be seen leaning over at right-angles in front of the maps to make them line up with the one in my head.[/quote]
Curious - I actually find it a bit easier to deal with, especially if the MRT line has turned and my own internal compass is off (i.e. whenever the blue line winds west and then south into Banqiao). It’s a minor mental adjustment, but the principle is just the same as standing in the wilderness with a topographical map, turning the map so it matches the direction you’re facing, or the I suppose now-more-common experience of a car GPS showing you your own view and what direction to turn. (Um, you do know the MRT maps are oriented to match the direction you’re facing, right? Apologies if that’s obvious!)
I’ve always turned myself until the map and I were pointing north!
Anyway, by the time you come out of the exit you’re going to be facing some other direction. What I want is to know where the exit is, in terms of road intersection and corner, and orienting the map in odd ways is just an extra transform I have to do (and sometimes forget).
Minimum fare be raised from the current NT$70 for the first 1.25 kilometers to NT$100.
It also suggested the prolonged metering rate be adjusted from the current NT$5
for every 80 seconds a taxi moves slower than 5 kph to 60 seconds.
Consider telling taxi which route or roads you want to take because if driver picks then might pick route with more traffic and collecting money for sitting still.
I sometimes wondered why taxi asked me which way I want to go and I usually say it’s up to you thinking drivers knows best.
CNY holiday, Jan. 17-29, 2023, will increase NT$30.
Many drivers set their own rate during typhoons, when there are office closures due to a typhoon or heavy rain, there will be an additional NT$50 charged per trip.
In my experience taxis try to take the best road always. I have never met any taxi driver taking me on a drive-around. Yeah sure, some took a road I would not have driven myself, but I could not blame them because it was still a reasonable road to take. And they do often ask me, which I also find odd, but maybe that is to cut off any discussion on how to drive beforehand.
They ask you the route so that there wouldn’t be any disputes later. If they pick a route that ends up in a traffic jam, they’re afraid you’ll blame them. If you named a route that ended up in a jam, then hey, it was your call.
I once had a chattering cunt from Vietnam who drove be all around town. He wanted to hit me with NT$700 for a ride that usually costs 250. I was furious. Complained the whole way. When we got to my place, I dropped 250 on his front passenger seat.
“Hey, it’s 700!”
“Go fuck your mother.”
“I keel you!”
“Go fuck your mother first, then come back and try to keel me.”
“Fuck you! You steeling!”
'There’s a police station a block away. Let’s drive there and see who’s ‘steeling.’"
Man, I was livid. Not so much about the trivial amount of money, but the time it took. And the fucking cheek of the nasty little creature.
The biggest issue that might cause a dispute these days is the time on the meter. On many meters the time is inaccurate, maybe off by 3 to as much as 15 minutes. So if you get in the cab at 10:58 p.m., you’re supposed to be charged the day rate, but if the time on the meter is ahead of the actual time by say 3 minutes, you’d be charged the night rate, which kicks in at 11:00 p.m. This has happened to me more than a few times. I’d usually challenge if the time is way off, but if it’s within a 5 minute difference, I’d just let it go.
