Scooters - Taking my life in my hands

Scooters

Driving a scooter in Taiwanis quite risky. Every time I get on my scooter, I feel like I am possibly about to die. In the country where I live, it isn’t so bad, but in the city it is terrifying. First of all, you need to know that there are traffic laws, but no one really obeys them. Everyone does whatever they want. There are generally eight lanes of traffic with four going each way: two lanes for the cars and two for the scooters. This makes turning left quite difficult as one must cut in front of 2 lanes of cars to turn. If you are at a stoplight, it’s easier. But did I mention the lights change and there are no green arrows. You just have to go and dodge the oncoming cars and scooters. So I make a lot of right hand turns and U-turns. Scooters generally just weave in and out of traffic and around cars. Not only, do they not obey traffic rules, they all pack onto one scooter. It is not unusual to see a family of three or four (including the children, babies and all) on one scooter. Sometimes they bring the dog along.

I also experienced my first time driving in rain on Sunday. People don full length raindresses because the rain is blowing at you. Also… it hurts. When you are going any speed faster than walking the rain stings. One more thing, you don’t want to be anywhere around a car when it hits a puddle. I was definitely right next to a car when it hit a huge puddle and it definitely went all over me like a wave of dirty water. Taiwanis very dirty place and very dusty, so when it rains, the water on the street is VERY dirty.