Right on cue for jumping the queue

I know I keep banging on about this kind of stuff, but someone (preferably a Taiwanese local), please please tell me what the fook is going on in the minds of these selfish, ignorant bellends who keep ignoring the majority?  There we are, sat waiting patiently at the lights and, as sure as eggs is eggs, some clown or three will slide up the inside/outside/down the middle of the queue so they don’t have to wait so long at the next set of lights.

I know it’s a different culture, and nobody seems to give a toss about anyone else, but why do they think we are all sat there waiting?  Frankly, I take it as a personal insult, as the only explanation I can think of is that they think I’m an idiot.  Perhaps I am, but why is it that none of the local drivers seem to give a damn either?  They hate their time being wasted, and here are all these arseholes wasting this precious commodity by the bucket-load.

To add insult to injury, on the road this evening there was a police car slowly drifting down the hard shoulder while numerous cars and trucks undertook two lanes of traffic by using the scooter lane.  Of course, the police did absolutely nothing.  Why are the police so impotent, so uninterested, so blind to such selfish, dangerous road behaviour?  The net result is that the scooterists end up buzzing cyclists in the cycle lane.  Brilliant.  Thanks a lot car drivers.

As an addendum, we just witnessed a very lucky escape for a scooter rider.  He was cutting across in front of us through a junction (risky) while the car behind me was overtaking me (yes, through the junction) and clearly didn’t see the scooter until the last moment.  Cue tyres screeching.  Cue scooter rider hardly batting an eyelid.  He was 70 years old if he was a day.  How the hell he’s survived that long is beyond me… he was not looking at the oncoming traffic.  Must have burnt a hell of a lot of paper money at the temple last night.  Lucky bastard.

Lucky bastard indeed, and there was me thinking I would have my moment in court as a witness.

Oh, and a typical taxi incident for your perusal.

Taiwanese authorities…  what is your plan to deal with this kind of stupidity?!?

An open letter. Probably the first of many.

It’s a long while since I wrote anything on this blog, but ideas have been bubbling away, deep in the recesses of my tiny brain.

Having reached the inevitable conclusion that there is absolutely nothing I can do about the madness I witness all around me each and every day, it seems only right that I should at least try to understand what is actually going on.  Since I cannot speak, nor read nor write the language (a situation I am determined to rectify sooner or later), I suppose I can at least ask a few questions in the vain hope that somebody may enlighten me.  I’ll try to keep it short.  Perhaps an observation in each post, coupled with a question and maybe a suggestion or two.  I no longer have a camera on my phone, so I may be a little lacking in visuals.  Let’s see how I get on.

As you will know if you’ve read some or all of my previous posts about life in Taiwan, there are some mighty odd things for an old westerner to deal with each day, not least when out and about on my bike or in the car, so I’ll begin with the police.

Dear Taiwanese police officers…

I doubt you’ll have time to read this because you’ll be out at some junction dealing with yet another (probably minor) collision between a car and a scooter, or between a scooter and another scooter, but should you find yourself with a moment, perhaps you could answer this question.  What are you thinking as you attend your 93rd incident of the day?  Do you, or any of your superiors, wonder why you spend so much time dealing with these collisions?  Has anyone ever thought to analyse and address the cause of these same collisions?  Has nobody noticed the similarities?  Do you not think that it is a massive drain on/waste of resources?  I’m genuinely curious.  What exactly are you thinking?

Here’s a classic example.

And another

And for monumental stupidity (not for the faint-hearted):

I simply don’t understand why there is nothing being done to deal with this problem.

If anyone out there is a Taiwanese police officer, or if you know someone who is a Taiwanese police officer, I’d be very grateful if you would forward this and ask them to respond.  Thank you so much.

Edit: I addressed this to the police.  Having thought about it, this is aimed at all Taiwanese citizens.  What are you thinking when you see this kind of thing?  I genuinely, genuinely would like to know.