I think it would be the result of a taxi driver.
Oddly enough, I think the odds are about the same whether I'm in a taxi or out of one. This is because the rules for taxis here are different than the rules for, say, any motor vehicle in the states.
Seatbelt Laws:
While I have observed that most of the taxis here do have a full complement of seatBELTS, have noticed that, particularly in the back seat, buckles seem to be absent. My thought is that while perhaps vehichles are required to be equipped with a belt, the people handing out taxi driver licenses don't check or care about the buckles. No doubt such equipment is then stripped from the car and sold at a flee market.
Painted lines:
While growing up in the States, I learned to consider a painted yellow line as a barrier to generally be avoided, here it seems to be more of a casual suggestion. This is particularly true going through narrow allyways, where the city planners saw fit to draw these lines, but did not see fit to make the lane wide enough for two cars to drive through
Stoplights:
Like in the states, stoplights have a 1-2 second delay between one changing red, and the other changing green. Cab drivers seem to interpret this as a free time, where traffic is allowed to move from anywhere in the intersection, either cruising through at 100kph or burnning out in an effort to make it to the next light before anyone else. Also, while there are left turn lanes, I've noticed that they are often used as alternative lanes to travel straight in, when the other left turn lane and straight lanes simply have too many cars.
Hana told me that the taxis in Serbia are much more frightening, maybe I'm just a wuss.
In less morbid news, I've made it to Taizhong, and I'm having a wonderful time. More on that probably in the next post.
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3 comments:
Awww... Don't die by taxi in Taiwan. Well... Don't die in Taiwan in general.
California is fun (and hot too!). I'm fairly happy. Some of the driving here scares me too.
I'm glad your having fun (and glad I found your blog). Ciao!
I have observed several interesting properties of taxis in my travels. The two most important are:
1) Taxis operate in an overlapping manifold to our space-time continuum called t-space. If view from the t-space frame of reference, the behavior of the taxis is quite benign and oridinary. If viewed from what we call normal space, their antics are seem to be, well, miraculous. FWIW, the seat belt buckles are not missing, they are simply living outside of t-space in a place you cannot see while inside.
2) The fundamental economic element that determines the price of all goods and services in a country is the cost of the taxiride from the airport to the center of the major city it serves. No matter the distance or the city, this price is scaled to be between $30 and $50 USD. Deviations are known, but it is usually the result of a mafia-like cartel.
What is it about bad taxi drivers in other countries?! When I went to Mexico I almost got in several accidents. There was lots of horns honking and road rage.
If I were you I would take the taxi as least you can
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