Job Discussion Forums

[BigWally]

Had my first little fender bender the other day on my scooter. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and the scenario is all too familiar. I make a right turn, following a lady with about 3 tons of recycling strapped to her scooter, and all of a sudden she stops dead, with no brake lights functioning. I slam the brakes and turn, and just graze the back bumper of her scooter and chip some paint off mine. Natually, there is an 80 (or so) year old woman, driving a bicycle, the wrong way in our scooter lane, and thus the reason for the other woman to stop short. I have a small red mark on my knee, and my gf has a small bump on her ankle. No harm no foul.

Anyways, I just thought I'd start up a quick poll to see how safe our roads really are, and how skilled our Dave's posters are at navigating the streets/alleyways, and sidewalks of Taiwan.

[Dr_Zoidberg]

Driving in Taiwan is an art.

[dangerousapple]

Everybody has an accident sooner or later, but thankfully for most of us it's just a bump. That said, three of my friends have ended up in the hospital here over the years. I've never had a serious motorcycle accident, but I had a car accident about 7 years ago (rear-ended by a drunk driver at 50 mph) which totalled the car and gave me a nice little back problem.

[markholmes]

So it's not just me that thinks the painted lines in the road are slippery.

[Ki]

I've had a few little experiences with various degrees of fault. I actually find it easier to have an accident whilest out walking. The bicycle isn't also that safe as scooter riders don't expect me to be able to keep up with them, well with the slower ones at least. The end of bridges poses the biggest risk where often cars have the option of entering in the scooter lane and turning right, often trying to turn into me in the process.

Can anyone shed light as to why so many people feel it necessary to overtake you and then immediately slow down and turn right, causing you to brake/swerve at the last minute?

Anyway, no surgery yet.

[ghost]

When ghost lived, taught and studied in Taiwan (Sep.2005-May 2006), it used a scooter (very rarely) and a mountain bike....commuting a daily 16km round trip by mountain bike between Ching Shueh (near Shalu) and Providence University (a few km up from Shalu on the way to Taichung).

Ghost rode the mountain bike the whole time.....and the only other people using bikes for long distance travel were the ubiquitous Mormons....in their nice white shirts and black pants.....the Taiwanese appear to be rather lazy, and will use a scooter to travel 50 metres to the nearest 7-11 store.

There was a student, from Paraguay, at Providence University studying Mandarin with ghost, who lost his life in June 2007 in a scooter accident. It was a bad collision with a vehicle....very sad and unfortunate.

Ghost was always rather stressed on certain sections of road (especially the long downhill section from Providence to Shalu town....when all the scooters would compete for space with ghost.....not to mention all the small buses and other vehicles.....

However, ghost was able to find "side roads" to use which lessened the chances of collisions, and ghost has noticed that there are side roads (example beside canals) which have much lighter traffic in Taiwan, in many places.

ghost

[Jamer]

Driving in Taiwan is easy...Had only one small accident when this dumbass failed to obey light that had been turned red for at least 10 seconds-nothing happened to me or my bike-though his license plate went flying for some reason or another... I'm a crap driver BTW too of both cars and bikes

Other than that simple rule for driving in both China and Taiwan-always focus on what's in front of you because else on the road is doing the same thing

[dangerousapple]

Most people get clocked from the side here, as drivers love making power turns, or darting out of alleys and gas stations without checking for traffic. Focusing on just one place can get you killed.