It’s Biking Jim……..but not as we know it!

I won’t bore you with the whys and wherefores; suffice to say that last Wednesday at work I was suddenly asked to go home and pack an overnight bag in preparation to fly to Taipei that night. Now I can’t say Taiwan had been high on my ‘must visit’ list, but I knew where it was, that it was formerly Formosa and not a lot else. I assumed it would be hot, humid with a permanent pollution haze, the people would be polite, courteous and efficient, and the streets would be a cauldron of bustling humanity.

Well, I was right about the climate and the people, but wrong oh so very wrong about the streets. There are virtually no privately owned cars in Taipei. The reason being, there are no parking spaces in the city. The few cars that are around are owned by large corporations and Hotels which are fortunate enough to have some underground parking available. The limousine belonging to the Hotel I stayed at was parked literally on the pavement underneath the entrance canopy! Everyone, from teenagers to little old grannies ride twist and go scooters. The pavements are lined with rows of the things, packed so tightly together they scratch and dent each other in the process.

There are good bus / coach services (all with pretty lace curtains at the windows) and the MRT, an overhead local commuter train service. The streets are clean and litter free. In the two days, three nights I was there I only saw three people smoking, so the streets are free of cigarette ends. Smoking and chewing of nuts and gum is forbidden by law on the MRT, punishable by an enormous instant fine if caught. Last weekend they happened to have an educational amnesty during which no fines were being levied. Instead, at each station a Policeman was posted equipped with a pair of rubber gloves and a box of tissues. If a masticating jaw was detected the officer, in one deft move, would wipe a tissue across the offending mouth disgorging the illicit item and consigning it to the bin. There then followed an official reprimand and caution that next time a fine would be imposed.

Taipei’s streets are mainly in grid formation, with traffic lights at every intersection. They drive on the right hand side, and there are NO LEFT TURNS!  If you need to turn off left in a car or bus, you have to go beyond where you would like to turn, do a right, right, right and cross back over the road you were originally on, effectively making your left turn. As you approach a junction you first have a solid white STOP line for cars, trucks and buses. In front of this is a box, the width of the whole carriageway and about twenty foot deep which is for scooters to wait in. Next, there is a zebra crossing. Not once did I see a pedestrian cross anywhere other than an official zebra crossing. All crossings have a red / green walking man sign and above it a number which counts down the number of seconds left in which to cross the road. Even when the road is completely clear of traffic, no-one crosses until the green man lights up.

His animated walk quickens as the time runs out! If there are only a few seconds left, pedestrians are content to wait for the next green phase before crossing. The discipline is admirable. In front of the zebra crossing, occupying only the width of lane one, is another box, about eight feet deep. If you are a scooterist wanting to make a left turn, you merely move to the right into the mouth of the intersecting road and wait in this box to cross the junction. The technique used to make the 90 degree turn into this box varies considerably. There is the stoppie and twist method, the speedway slide, and the skiing swoosh to name a few. The style depends on the age of the rider and just how much the poor little bike is carrying. Market Traders carry their stock on them, in plastic crates stacked six or eight feet high!, Window Cleaners tie their ladders on vertically with string. I saw one tradesman carrying a sheet of plywood which was easily three foot by four foot tied to the side. Small children are carried on jockey seats, like bicycle saddles attached to the front of the rider’s seat. Babies are either cradled in the mother’s arms on the back, or placed in a ‘baby walker’ type frame clipped in the ‘step through’ bit at the front.

The whole system works, because everyone plays fairly and squarely by the rules. Speeding and jumping the lights is not a problem here, but if it were, the Police would be hot on the culprit’s heels,…………on one of these

This was the nearest thing to a real motorbike I saw:- It's a chain driven, Yamaha Cruiser...................................of sorts!

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