Mopeds are viscous two-wheelers that have become the heart and
soul of daily life in Taiwan. Not so much in Taipei as the
underground system has provided a cheaper and faster means of
travel within the city. All the other cities though rely heavily
on the moped, scooter or motorbike (call them what you may) as
the means to keep the city alive and functioning!
When I first arrived in Kaohsiung, Taiwan many years ago,
(joining a ship in Kaohsiung) I was amazed and dumbfounded as I
stood at the traffic lights in what had been an attempt of mine
to get to the other side. I reached the crossing and looked
around, looked at a wasp’s nest of little two wheelers on
the road and going in every direction possible! How on earth was
I supposed to get across the road, how was anybody ever supposed
to cross a road in Kaohsiung?
Mopeds everywhere, hundreds of them, millions of them, going
every which way but loose. At no time in the fifteen minutes
that I stood there with my mouth open did the crossing become
even remotely clear of the buzzing creatures. At no time did I
feel safe or secure in the prospects of crossing that road. The
motorbikes were just everywhere like locusts in a field. Other
pedestrians I eventually noticed where crossing this melee,
before they stepped off the pavement though they did look at me
with my mouth open, in wonder!
Nowadays, I don’t think twice about crossing the road. The
‘swarm of bees’ no longer frightens or shocks me and
I understand the system completely. This is how you cross the
road: Wait until the road parallel to you is flowing (green
light ahead) and then just step off into the road, close your
eyes and walk quickly across. Close your eyes? Yes, this is the
only way to do it; otherwise you may panic, turn around and be
mowed down by a moped or sliced up by a Vesper. Somehow the
controllers of these two-wheeled monstrosities have excellent
knowledge and foresight as to where a pedestrian will be twenty
or so seconds ahead of where they are now. Confused?
Try it this way! If we know the time at which a pedestrian
starts to walk across the road and we know the speed at which
they are walking then it will be easy to work out the time at
which said pedestrian will reach the other side.
Moped drivers have a six sense for this. They do not need help
using this mathematical formula: as it is in-built into their
brains when they purchase their first bike. They will see you
crossing the road and will automatically work out where you will
be when they cross your path. In this way they work out
instantly where you will be when they reach the crossing so that
they will pass easily in front or behind you. You as the
pedestrian must walk at the same rate otherwise you will confuse
the driver and he may get it all wrong.
Ach, I am getting tied up in knots. Listen, when crossing the
road in Taiwan, wait for the green light and then just walk
smartly and quickly across he road with your eyes shut. Just do
it!
Mopeds provide the means to a way of life for about 90% of
people living in Taiwan. The ten percent that does not use a
moped are people like me – too afraid to do it. And the
rest are rich enough to have a car or too young to drive
(younger than 12yrs old it seems). Mopeds are the means through
which gas bottles are delivered to your house, chickens are
delivered to the slaughterhouse, and the mail is brought to your
doorstep and through which Policeman patrol the streets. Mopeds
are used to go to work, visit friends and to do the shopping.
Mopeds are used to snatch handbags from pedestrians and used to
make the getaway after the bank robbery. Mopeds are used to
collect the children from school or to go on a family outing and
they are used to collect garbage and recycling material for the
scavenger. Mopeds pull stalls of all shapes and sizes and mopeds
pull trailers bowed under with wood or bags of cement. Mopeds
are used for everything that can possibly be dreamt up.
My favorite picture regarding the uses of the Scooter is the
rubbish collection lady. She has the moped completely covered in
plastic bottles of all shapes and sizes. Anywhere that a bottle
can be tied or a plastic bag can be hung then there was one. The
moped itself could not be seen, so complete was the job that she
had done. Another is the Live Chicken delivery boy who is seen
every morning on his way to the market. His moped has six large
size crates stacked up on the rear, filled to choking with live
chickens. At the front are another three or so crates –
these filled with eggs. Being so top heavy I often wander how he
never has an accident: what if there is a gust of wind one fine
day, my what a mess that would be. I am also surprised that the
chickens where not dead before they arrived at the market!
Yes, motorbikes are used for everything and in most cities push
all other means of transport into the background. Bus systems
are more or less useless for the average person! Considering a
moped journey of twenty minutes, it could take two buses or more
to cover the same trail and take well over an hour. Buses are
unreliable and far and few between, they do not go where you
want them to go and they are typically old and falling apart.
Taxis are okay and plenty of them but are generally too
expensive for everyday use. Bicycles are too dangerous and cars
are only for the rich.
Yes, Mopeds are the business and until more Transport Systems
are built or better bus routes and frequency are provided they
will continue to be the vein and connection system for the
majority of the population.
A typical off the shelf Scooter costs upwards of 30,000NT
dollars. That is about 600 UK Pounds or 900 US Dollars. So large
is the market, thus so cheap can they cost to buy. A
teenager’s first priority is the moped. As soon as they
are sixteen a moped comes into every conversation until the
mother, tiring of having hers used all the time, persuades the
father to buy one. Teenagers go to school on them and in this
way they have become a status symbol. Adverts on the television
use sexy woman to push forwards the usefulness and need to have
a moped. Adverts use fashion and self-importance to promote the
ownership of a moped and so the end result is that if you have a
moped you are “hip”, and if you don’t have one
then you are not worth talking to.
For the price they are not expensive to the typical household in
Taiwan and anyway, cheap second hand mopeds are easily found or
ones that have been dumped are often in fully working condition
and easily appropriated by the wise.
Every single available space outside of houses, buildings,
apartments and office blocks are covered in parked mopeds. Car
Parks everywhere are stuffed to over flowing with the two
wheelers, most in use but some having been forgotten about or
just left to waste in preference for a newer model. Mopeds are
parked everywhere and anywhere that pedestrians ever thought of
walking on. Pathways and walkways, pavements and curbs are all
festooned with parked two wheelers. Once again pedestrians come
second and are forced onto the roadside to join the mass of
moving vehicles and the dangers involved thus.
Something that I have often wandered about, with so many mopeds
is it not easy to forget where you parked the damned thing? Must
ask somebody about that and if it ever happens! Where in Taiwan
did I park that infernal machine?
It is dangerous on the roads, there is no doubt about that and
one of the reasons why I have refused to drive or even consider
driving a moped around. Taiwan law states that at any accident
the vehicles must remain in the accident position until the
Police arrive – which means that traffic flow is seriously
disrupted for another two hours or so.
Accidents are common and no Moped Driver has escaped the turmoil
of being knocked off his seat. Some with broken legs and arms
put it down to experience and climb warily into the saddle
others just laugh their cuts and bruises off and carry on
driving recklessly until the next fall. Kids are the worst, they
scream around the roads regardless of any safety rules and
regulations and regardless of traffic lights and pedestrians.
And they get away with it all! They are the ultimate in danger
yet the Police just watch them zooming by probably knowing that
they could not catch them but doing nothing all the same.
One of my favorite accidents was where the Policeman swerved
around the corner on his moped in chase of a poor woman who had
run a red light! But in doing so the Policeman ran headfirst
into this other poor lady whose shopping went flying all over
the road and the Policeman fell off his bike. They are to me not
the authoritative figure that we associate with back home. Like
the other day a woman and her kid did something wrong, maybe
turned the corner at the wrong time or did not stop at the red
light. Mr. Policeman happened to be standing nearby with his
pumped up chest and I am “king” attitude. Seeing
what he saw he majestically clicked his fingers and through sign
language told the woman to pull over beside him. She was only
going slowly, was not far away from him and obviously saw what
he wanted. Back home one would pull over – don’t
mess with the law, but this lady just looked at him, smiled
politely and slammed the throttle to full. She was gone before
the Policeman could think about what to do next. I saw his hand
going to his radio, then it went for his notebook, then he
started towards his own moped and then he just sank into
himself. Nothing he could do, she was out of sight and what
information had he to pass across, what was that damned license
plate number again? No, the Police are not really the best when
concerned with traffic violators and speeders.
Helmet wearing is now law and enforced as far as they can do it.
Most people do wear helmets and those without are easy for the
Police to pass the message along. They have this habit of hiding
behind signs and around corners and taking photographs of the
criminals and thus catching them that way. If they can get their
expensive cameras up and focused that is!
There is no rule about using the side mirrors that all mopeds
come equipped with. Most mopeds seem to have had these removed
either personally when they bought the bike or through accidents
along the way. In fact many mirrors just hang sadly neglected
downwards but saying to the world, “I am here but nobody
is interested in using me”. And along with this lack of
attention to using mirrors comes the typical and forceful manner
of driving in Taiwan. Drivers look forwards, they do not look
backwards. The rear is the responsibility of those behind and
absolutely nothing to do with those ahead. Should the person
ahead wish to move out of lane and turn a corner, what happens
behind is of no consequence and should a faster driver be coming
up and into the path of the one ahead, well that is their
problem. At no point in a driver’s education does it say,
“make sure nothing is coming up behind you before moving
out”. Simply put, mirrors are not required and in fact are
so “Not hip”.
Mopeds come in all shapes and sizes. The sleek Italian Design to
the ‘odds and ends’ wreck that is home built. They
are driven by people of all shapes and sizes from rather large
persons who drape themselves over the seat and potter along at a
curvy pace, old ladies who could walk faster, teenagers who zoom
along and secretaries who are followed by admiring gazes. Some
bikes groan as they are pushed to their limits and other bikes
seem to stifle the power that they possess. Some bikes are used
as human transporters, father driving with the mother behind,
two kids standing in the well at the front and one kid holding
on for dear life at the back. Others still puff out a horrendous
cloud of white smoke signaling that a repair is needed to all
but the drivers themselves. Some bikes weave uncontrollably as
the driver falls asleep or wanders off into a land of his
creation, and others still go the wrong way as drivers get
confused or attempt shortcuts that could shave seconds off their
journey.
Many bikes can’t be started as batteries run down. Petrol
stations are filled with callers for more juice and proud people
wash there bikes down, buffing up the seat that they spend so
many hours sitting in. Dogs ride in the wells as their owners
take them out for a walk, children sit on specially designed
seats fitting snugly into the well and electricians keep there
tools all over the bike as they attend to some call or other.
Ladies try to keep their skirts from billowing up and showing to
the world the color of their underwear. Food falls out from the
front basket as the wind catches it, another drink is dropped as
it rolls from between the feet of a forgetful driver and yet
another kid nearly falls off the back as his mother guns the
throttle in excess.
People struggle to find parking spaces, whilst others scratch
their heads over how to extract their moped from the pack.
Others still annoy taxi drivers as they cut across them and yet
another pedestrian gets in the way. Passengers stepping off a
bus narrowly escape being mowed down as a moped scrapes past and
yet another driver parks his machine in the middle of the road
thus causing a bottleneck to occur.
Mopeds are the distribution system the veins and arteries of
society that keep it functioning, in motion and fed. Mopeds are
the means to conduct business, to do the shopping, to get around
and to be free. They are the lifelines for a whole society and
one that without would just cease to function. Mopeds are the
bread and butter for an entire culture.
For me as the lone pedestrian I am assigned to the road to join
the melee, forced to sit on buses for endless hours and induced
to spending large sums of money on taxis. For me as the odd one
out of millions I am looked upon as “weird” and
receive strange looks for the masses. I as the pedestrian fight
against society to live on my own two feet and find it hard. I
as the odd one out am thinking of riding a moped! If you
can’t beat them join them.
Then again I may wait for the Underground system that is now
being built in Kaohsiung – should I find the courage to
wait the estimated eight years it will take to complete
About the author:
Born 1967 in England and joined my first ship at nineteen as a
Marine Engineer. Now, fifteen years later I write about all the
cultural diversity, situations and escapades that I have been
apart of.
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