Taiwan Riding

Taiwan roads are dominated by scooters.

The Chinese fondness of bicycles has met the internal combustion engine.

Luckily Kaohsiung was first laid out by the Japanese;

Wide streets with median strips and organised road names are the norm.

I spent a fair bit of time on a bike in Thailand.

It is: "same same, but different" as they say.

The Thai drive like they walk - very slowly.

Everyone putters around with the whole family on one bike, never in much of a hurry.

The foreigners rule of the "fast lane".

The Chinese however, seem to be a people in a hurry.

They still stack their bike with all their worldly possessions - including the family, but they are also moving at high speeds.

They can keep the fast lane, and I will keep my skin.

I'm quite attached to my skin.

I have never seen so many scooter accidents as I have here.

Knocking into people seems to be a normal part of life.

It's lucky that health insurance is universal here.

It's needed.

I can think of some reasons why there are so many accidents here:

Speed - as mentioned.

Traffic lights - are all timed which makes driving very slow. Also:

Green light = proceed with caution; and

Red light = proceed with caution

Cars - although they seem to be more aware of bikes than other places in the world, there is some pretty shocking driving around. It sometimes takes up to three people to parallel park.

Rain - in Thailand during the monsoon, when it starts raining, you pull over and take shelter. What ever you are travelling to, is obviously not worth getting wet for.

Here, when it rains, it people drive faster (and crazier) to get out of the rains as soon as possible.

Potholes - this is partly about rain and partly about road construction, but pretty regularly during the monsoon large sections of road seems to disappear.

This is especially dangerous when such holes are filled full of water - you never know how deep it is and whether you are going to be sent on a one-way trip over the handle bars.

To their credit however, people do stop to put a traffic cone over the hole or at least a tree branch, and it is fixed up within a couple of days. On the other hand this does leave you with a patchwork of a road.

In conclusion here are some tips for the scooter life:

1. Keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel, so to speak.
2. Never trust anyone or anything.
3. Stay at least a doors width away from parked cars.
4. Make sure your brakes and horn are fully operational at all times.
   
5. Constantly think about what it's like to come off.