Whack Things in Taiwan (part 3)

[Baas Babelaas]

Whack? The general attutude about driving that most Taiwanese have. I understand traffic in a crowded country, but when people continue to run 15 cars and scootes through a standing red, make long angled left turns into oncoming traffic, park so close that they hit your leg with their scooter, etc (ad nauseum) I have only one word...
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you. That is all.

Comes with density of population. Rankles me a lot of days. But Taiwan (in my China) is nit gonna change for us, innit?

[bismarck]

Whack? The general attutude about driving that most Taiwanese have. I understand traffic in a crowded country, but when people continue to run 15 cars and scootes through a standing red, make long angled left turns into oncoming traffic, park so close that they hit your leg with their scooter, etc (ad nauseum) I have only one word...
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you. That is all.

You just don't understand Taiwanese culture. They're getting up close to say hi.

[Super Hans]

On the subject of driving.

Going back to my parking space last night along a very straight, fairly short lane used exclusively as access to the parking areas along the river side, I encountered a car, side-on, blocking the entire width of the lane so nobody could get past.
I got out to try to figure out what was going on and it turns out that the driver had managed to roll his car over once, so that it was back on its wheels again.
He achieved this on a road which has no bends, nothing to avoid and on a lane which is so short, it would be really, really difficult to get up enough speed to actually get enough momentum to roll a car even if you were trying.
He refused to get out so he just sat there until the police came. He wasn't drunk.
I still can't work out how it happened.

[tsukinodeynatsu]

On the subject of driving.

Going back to my parking space last night along a very straight, fairly short lane used exclusively as access to the parking areas along the river side, I encountered a car, side-on, blocking the entire width of the lane so nobody could get past.
I got out to try to figure out what was going on and it turns out that the driver had managed to roll his car over once, so that it was back on its wheels again.
He achieved this on a road which has no bends, nothing to avoid and on a lane which is so short, it would be really, really difficult to get up enough speed to actually get enough momentum to roll a car even if you were trying.
He refused to get out so he just sat there until the police came. He wasn't drunk.
I still can't work out how it happened.

Oh! Somebody had that story about a Taiwanese woman rolling her car in LA, and the boyfriend got mad at the hospital and said:

"What!? You never rolled a car before?!"

I'll watch the news last night to see if the guy had a dash cam recording it, then we might find out what happened. I don't see it making the news if there's no footage though!

I was sitting at a corner side coffeeshop here once and this car parked at the corner pulled out, went to turn the corner and slammed into the traffic light pole. All of us turned around to look, and have NO idea how he did it. When he backed up to go around it he slammed into it again, and eventually got around it by scraping his car along it. This is on a wide, fairly empty bit of intersection.

It was a really expensive car, too. Black, shiny, and BMW or Benz or whatever they drive nowadays.

[superking]

What's worse... Taiwanese people driving in ways that you don't understand OR your constant inability to deal with Taiwanese people driving in ways you don't understand?

Get the fuck over it. Taiwanese people drive like Y. You are used to people driving like X. Get the fuck over it and move on.

What's next?

Oh they shop in Hang Ten....
Oh they have long trousers on when it is warm.
Oh they eat beef in fucking gravy and call it a tradition.


Get on with your lives, people.

[Super Hans]

The posts are about the impossibility and physics behind an accident and about the illogical train of thought and behaviour one displayed on hitting a post time after time after hitting it the first time, respectively. Strange occurrences even within the realm of Taiwanese driving.

However, to have to constantly fork out to beat bumps out of your car, repaint scratches and nicks and pay for new new wing mirrors, or to be constantly wondering when you are going to have to fork out a couple of thousand NT to a scooter rider who bumped into you, then it is difficult to 'get the fuck over it' as you so eloquently put it. As I see it, the driving behaviour in Taiwan is not necessarily a reflection of bad driving, but a deeper representation of Taiwanese society as a whole: Lack of respect for rule of law, lack of respect for personal space, lack of respect for property and lack of respect for safety.
Accepting that this is the way things are is one thing. Getting past this is another entirely.

[finley]

I still can't work out how it happened.

I'm pretty certain the dash cam would show the car levitating, revolving slowly in midair, and coming back down on its wheels. Laws, even the laws of physics, apparently do not apply to Taiwanese people.

[superking]

The posts are about the impossibility and physics behind an accident and about the illogical train of thought and behaviour one displayed on hitting a post time after time after hitting it the first time, respectively. Strange occurrences even within the realm of Taiwanese driving.

However, to have to constantly fork out to beat bumps out of your car, repaint scratches and nicks and pay for new new wing mirrors, or to be constantly wondering when you are going to have to fork out a couple of thousand NT to a scooter rider who bumped into you, then it is difficult to 'get the fuck over it' as you so eloquently put it. As I see it, the driving behaviour in Taiwan is not necessarily a reflection of bad driving, but a deeper representation of Taiwanese society as a whole: Lack of respect for rule of law, lack of respect for personal space, lack of respect for property and lack of respect for safety.
Accepting that this is the way things are is one thing. Getting past this is another entirely.

So stop repainting your scratches. People in France happily plough into one another all day long. Italy too. I never paid money to someone who hit ME. Have you? Really? Seems weird and pointless.

the driving behaviour in Taiwan is not necessarily a reflection of bad driving, but a deeper representation of Taiwanese society as a whole: Lack of respect for rule of law, lack of respect for personal space, lack of respect for property and lack of respect for safety.

This is beyond nonsense. You paint your categories as wide and as pointless as you like, but what you said there is balderdash.

[saddletramp]

The posts are about the impossibility and physics behind an accident and about the illogical train of thought and behaviour one displayed on hitting a post time after time after hitting it the first time, respectively. Strange occurrences even within the realm of Taiwanese driving.

However, to have to constantly fork out to beat bumps out of your car, repaint scratches and nicks and pay for new new wing mirrors, or to be constantly wondering when you are going to have to fork out a couple of thousand NT to a scooter rider who bumped into you, then it is difficult to 'get the fuck over it' as you so eloquently put it. As I see it, the driving behaviour in Taiwan is not necessarily a reflection of bad driving, but a deeper representation of Taiwanese society as a whole: Lack of respect for rule of law, lack of respect for personal space, lack of respect for property and lack of respect for safety.
Accepting that this is the way things are is one thing. Getting past this is another entirely.

So stop repainting your scratches. People in France happily plough into one another all day long. Italy too. I never paid money to someone who hit ME. Have you? Really? Seems weird and pointless.

the driving behaviour in Taiwan is not necessarily a reflection of bad driving, but a deeper representation of Taiwanese society as a whole: Lack of respect for rule of law, lack of respect for personal space, lack of respect for property and lack of respect for safety.

This is beyond nonsense. You paint your categories as wide and as pointless as you like, but what you said there is balderdash.

Thanks for your advices, Hugh Jass

[superking]

Thanks for your advices, Hugh Jass

You know why it is funny that you called me that? Nah, me neither.

I bet the reason immigrants can't own horses is because driving culture in Taiwan is a deeper representation of why people in Taiwan have a lack of respect for property.