Scootering Makes My Life

It is absolutely necessary that I include a posting about my scooter. My scooter is one of my favorite things. If I were Maria, singing about "a few of my favorite things," scootering would top the charts and help me to forget all my sorrows of dogs barking and bees stinging. As soon as Professor Lee mentioned Taiwanese scooters to me last spring, I knew that some scooter awaited me in my not too distant future. Scooters = fantabulous.

These first two pictures are from the day I bought my scooter, about three weeks ago now. I bought my scooter second-hand for about 500 US dollars. Look how black and shiny it is! I can store things under my seat or in a locked compartment under my handle bars. The seller also gave me a free helmet and attached hooks and a front basket for me. Hooks are commonly used here to hang one's bubble tea or juice, so I feel very Taiwanese with them. :) Fonda is also in this picture, helping me with my helmet. Fonda has been instrumental in my scooter-obtaining process. She helped us visit different shops, test-ride scooters, bargain with salesmen, pass our health examination (we had to visit a hospital to get a physical done, because obviously the hundreds of dollars and hours of time we spent on multiple physicals in the States over the course of the entire summer were not adequate proof of our physical well-being; oh, and yes I did pass my eye examination in Chinese - you know, the one where you have to say which direction the little "E" is facing - hurrah rudimentary Chinese skills!) and visit the DMV.

This is me after getting my license. As you can tell, I was super excited. My scooter is a 125cc, so I had to pass both a written and driving test. The written examination here is actually fairly difficult. For obvious reasons, I thought I would have better odds passing if I took the English version. However, the English version is a poorly translated replica of the Chinese version, making comprehension of the actual question being asked fairly tricky. The first couple of ETAs from our group who took the exam failed the first time (and of the Yilan ETAs, 12 of the 16 failed the first time around), so I decided to wait a little longer before trying my luck. Indeed, luck is more involved in this test than skill. I found some of the questions so amusing that I had to include a few of my favorites below for you:

"True or False: Emergency braking requires a braking distance and the best driving skill, under normal circumstances, the braking distance is longer."
"True or False: When you approach an intersection, you must slow down and perpare to stop, put your foot on the brake to avoid drunk and pedestrians crossing in red."
"Multiple Choice: If a motorcyclist wants to show national pride, enhance social safety and family happiness, he/she must: (1) drive ethically and obey the laws (2) have great driving skills (3) stop smoking and drinking"
"Multiple Choice: When you hit and injury a pedestrian, you must: (1) be responsible and save the injured person (3) accelerate and run away (3) say something nice and leave"
"Multiple Choice: The tip for the motorcyclist to solve complex and critical events is: (1) calm and safe (2) to be an adventurer (3) optimistic and let it be"


This is me in the driving part of the test. You had to drive around on this track staying within the yellow lines. There are sensors along the track which automatically fail you if you cross over them. The hardest part of the driving test was actually the part right before this, where you had to drive along a track six inches wide and fifteen meters long within a time period of 7-14 seconds without putting your feet down. This means you have to drive at a snail's pace, balancing carefully so that you do not fall over or cross over the sensors. While I succeeded in passing the written exam my first time around (95% woot!), it took me two attempts to get through the driving test (I put my foot down on my first trial - luckily they give you two attempts before failing you).


I am now a proud scooter license-bearing resident of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Bekah and I got our licenses on the same day, and as you can tell, we are super excited about it. :) Oh, another cool thing about having a Taiwanese driver's license? It serves as my second form of official Taiwanese identification, along with my ARC. I feel so legal and grown-up!

Now I am sure you are all wondering about Taiwanese traffic? Well, it is a bit crazy, but also very fun. I love to drive, and scooters are so much more fun than cars, because you are out in the open with the wind ripping through your hair etc etc (I change my mind whenever it is raining...). There are more scooters on the roads than cars here, but it is not as dangerous driving in Kaohsiung as in Taipei because the roads are so much wider. I am not sure I would be comfortable driving in Taipei, because it has even more traffic in a much tighter space on very narrow roads. Kaohsiung roads are quite nice, and many of the main avenues even have a special scooter lane separated from the main road by a grassy meridian. My least favorite part of driving in Taiwan is the no left-turn rule. Scooters are not allowed to make left-turns for safety reasons (crossing over traffic). Instead, they must cross the intersection, stop in a "turn box" and then wait for the other light to turn green in order to cross the second street. The reason I find this so frustrating is that if you are stopped at one red light, that means you will have to sit through two red lights in order to get through the entire intersection and on your way again. At a major intersection, this process can take over 5-10 minutes (yes, Mother, I am using hyperbole, but it feels that long)! Because of my aversion to left turns, I usually try to plan my travel route in such a way as to minimize left turns as much as possible.

Final thought on scooters. Taiwanese people carry all sorts of ridiculous things on their scooters, from furniture to pizza (Pizza Hut delivery guy is on a scooter) to pets (I am always amazed that the dogs do not go flying off the scooters with the way their owners are driving) to entire families (biggest family I have seen on a single scooter? five people - Asians may be small, but not THAT small...). I have yet to become so skilled. :) However, I can drive one other person on the back of my scooter. So, incentive to come visit me in Taiwan: I will give you a scooter ride!