Scootering in Taiwan

babblefish · Post by **babblefish** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 10:25 pm

As some of you know, I've lived/worked in Taiwan and experienced first hand scootering as a way of life. I just found this YouTube video of scootering in Hsinchu, Taiwan, the city I lived in. It's pretty interesting for those who have never seen or experienced a culture where scooters are a daily part of life. Notice that some of the roads were built specifically for scooters only. The number of scooters that I see in this video is much less than when I lived there (mid 90's) and more cars, due I imagine to the growth of their semiconductor manufacturing industry (the reason I was there). Science Park in Hsinchu is the equivalent of our Silicon Valley.

If you like this video and want see more: http://wn.com/HsinChu_Taiwan_Scooter_Ride

BTW: It's not my website, I just find it interesting. And, the maximum engine size allowed is 150cc, though most people ride 50cc to 125cc scooters.

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omniphil · Post by **omniphil** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:07 pm

Great video, love the scooter only roads!

I recently returned from 3 weeks in China (Shanghai and Hong Kong)
Scooter culture is much the same over there and its great to see such a huge number of scooters everywhere. I wish this would catch on in the US, but sadly things are different over here. Cities aren't as large and are separated by these non scooter friendly things called highways

Plus I think the average american is way too concerned with how other people see them and they wouldn't be caught dead on a scooter.

Maybe if gas gets as expensive as out there (in Shanghai it was the equivalent of $6 a gallon, Hong Kong was $9) people will start to not worry so much about being to macho to ride a scooter?

I travel though Boston in rush hour traffic on the highway alot of days and I can say I've never seen another scooter ever. (On the back roads I see one or two occasionally) I'm sure I get alot of strange looks, but at least I hope I am raising some awareness to the other drivers that they do have choices in transportation. Its just more fun on two wheels!

Phil (Wishing I were back in China cruising around on my Blur)

babblefish · Post by **babblefish** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:19 pm

That's great that you got to experience true scooter culture! Yeah, I really miss living in Taiwan, but at least scooters are very prevalent here in San Francisco. There are dozens in my neighborhood alone.

Check out the video on the website titled "Hsinchu Scooter Ride - Evening", it will scare the bejesuz out of most people not used to riding in Asia.

agrogod · Post by **agrogod** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:37 pm

OMG, its a scooter dream come true! Why, oh why don't they get it here in the states

.

JHScoot · Post by **JHScoot** » Sat Nov 12, 2011 1:50 am

scooter parking lot

those scooter "lanes" under the overpasses and over the underpasses are awesome

SuperFlyBuddy · Post by **SuperFlyBuddy** » Sat Nov 12, 2011 2:29 am

I bet their arms get tired from waving at all the other scooterists!

babblefish · Post by **babblefish** » Sat Nov 12, 2011 2:45 am

Another scootercentric (is that even a real word?) thing about Taiwan is, look closely at the video where they show the crosswalk at intersections. Some of them have this big painted outlined box just in front of the pedestrian crosswalk. These boxes are for scooters to gather waiting for the light to change. Cars are not allowed in these boxes if there are scooters there.

BootScootin'FireFighter · Sat Nov 12, 2011 3:57 am

clear as mud Bubu sighting @ 3:53! That's like a scooter dream come true. And there's hardly any traffic jams, imagine that.

I agree with a lot of the theory that we're too concerned about how we look, not going out of our little comfort zone and supposed "safety bubble", and like mindless sheep in how the media completely influences our thinking. It's no wonder when there's a car commercial on every TV break, and spilling off of every newspaper and magazine. We worship our cars, it's pretty disturbing.

omniphil · Post by **omniphil** » Sat Nov 12, 2011 4:10 am

babblefish wrote:That's great that you got to experience true scooter culture! Yeah, I really miss living in Taiwan, but at least scooters are very prevalent here in San Francisco. There are dozens in my neighborhood alone.

Check out the video on the website titled "Hsinchu Scooter Ride - Evening", it will scare the bejesuz out of most people not used to riding in Asia.

I got to see many things on a scooter that would scare alot of people. They stack and carry some crazy stuff on their scooters.

I will continue to ride my scooter around looking like a nut out of place in hopes that it help this culture to not shun scooters.

omniphil · Post by **omniphil** » Sat Nov 12, 2011 4:11 am

BootScootin'FireFighter wrote:clear as mud Bubu sighting @ 3:53! That's like a scooter dream come true. And there's hardly any traffic jams, imagine that.

I agree with a lot of the theory that we're too concerned about how we look, not going out of our little comfort zone and supposed "safety bubble", and like mindless sheep in how the media completely influences our thinking. It's no wonder when there's a car commercial on every TV break, and spilling off of every newspaper and magazine. We worship our cars, it's pretty disturbing.

That pretty much sums it up. This country is run by oil companies. They are not going to let people move to vehicles that get 100 mpg or more.

AWinn6889 · Post by **AWinn6889** » Sat Nov 12, 2011 4:46 pm

BootScootin'FireFighter wrote:I agree with a lot of the theory that we're too concerned about how we look, not going out of our little comfort zone and supposed "safety bubble", and like mindless sheep in how the media completely influences our thinking. It's no wonder when there's a car commercial on every TV break, and spilling off of every newspaper and magazine. We worship our cars, it's pretty disturbing.

This... and the fact that people would be terrified by riding next to a large SUV, let alone a tractor trailer... and we have WAY too many of both!

There's no way that the US will ever adopt scooter/motorcycle only lanes either, it would cost too much of the money that our country does not have. It's sad, because you could easily put them somewhere near the super-highways that we currently have, and give them much more "scooter friendly" speed limits... so that *if desired/necessary* we could actually USE the "highways" at our own acceptable speeds without having to worry about all of the other gigantic vehicles around us.
I personally like taking the back roads everywhere, but sometimes it becomes tedious and annoying, even scary, especially when some of those back roads go through some not-so-nice neighborhoods.

michelle_7728 · Post by **michelle_7728** » Sat Nov 12, 2011 5:51 pm

Thanks for sharing the video, though I could only watch 3/4s of it before motion sickness took over.

No, I don't get motion sick riding my scooter...just watching videos (or video games) where there is a lot of motion.

Tazio · Post by **Tazio** » Sat Nov 12, 2011 5:53 pm

That looks like SoCal except all those scooter lanes are bike lanes. All we have to do is kick the bicyclists out.

Hey Wait! I'm a bicyclist first and a scooterist second and a Porsheist third.

omniphil · Post by **omniphil** » Sat Nov 12, 2011 8:19 pm

AWinn6889 wrote:
BootScootin'FireFighter wrote:I agree with a lot of the theory that we're too concerned about how we look, not going out of our little comfort zone and supposed "safety bubble", and like mindless sheep in how the media completely influences our thinking. It's no wonder when there's a car commercial on every TV break, and spilling off of every newspaper and magazine. We worship our cars, it's pretty disturbing.
This... and the fact that people would be terrified by riding next to a large SUV, let alone a tractor trailer... and we have WAY too many of both!

There's no way that the US will ever adopt scooter/motorcycle only lanes either, it would cost too much of the money that our country does not have. It's sad, because you could easily put them somewhere near the super-highways that we currently have, and give them much more "scooter friendly" speed limits... so that *if desired/necessary* we could actually USE the "highways" at our own acceptable speeds without having to worry about all of the other gigantic vehicles around us.
I personally like taking the back roads everywhere, but sometimes it becomes tedious and annoying, even scary, especially when some of those back roads go through some not-so-nice neighborhoods.

I ride the highways all the time, I am always next to really large vehicles, doesn't really bother me too much. I have a motorcycle as well so maybe I'm just used to it.

AWinn6889 · Post by **AWinn6889** » Sat Nov 12, 2011 9:02 pm

omniphil wrote:I ride the highways all the time, I am always next to really large vehicles, doesn't really bother me too much. I have a motorcycle as well so maybe I'm just used to it.

You're also on a 220i, not a 125, 150 or 170i. Your scoot is a little bit bigger and capable of higher speeds.
Anyway, I wasn't saying that I am afraid of being on highways, I'm just fine with them, heck, the "back road" 4-lane highways up to Saratoga and Lake George are frequented by semis, dumptrucks, etc etc, with a speed limit of 55mph. They were both built before the super highway that is less than a mile between them.
But MOST people in the US, are frightened by the thought of it.
We also have a motorcycle and I feel much safer on that on the super highways than I do on the Buddy. Even though it's not that much bigger size wise (well, it's a little longer), it has a 1200 engine, and is capable of much greater speed, and smooth maneuverability on those larger roads. It's also a little bit more visible.

BootScootin'FireFighter · Sat Nov 12, 2011 10:50 pm

I need some help, it's an unusual request. I like "House" music. I can't find this track for purchase or download, and I've been searching for a very long time today. It's Lacquer - "Behind", the extended mix. So many bogus music pages that look like spam, and I can't find it on amazon, itunes, or mp3skull. I give up, anyone able to guide me. This is about to become my go-to city riding music.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pnUhUtHbNvo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

jrsjr · Post by **jrsjr** » Sat Nov 12, 2011 10:57 pm

BootScootin'FireFighter wrote:I need some help, it's an unusual request. I like "House" music. I can't find this track for purchase or download, and I've been searching for a very long time today. It's Lacquer - "Behind", the extended mix. So many bogus music pages that look like spam, and I can't find it on amazon, itunes, or mp3skull. I give up, anyone able to guide me. This is about to become my go-to city riding music.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pnUhUtHbNvo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

You know that you can use Youtube-Mp3.org to extract the audio from that video, right? It's free and you just download the MP3 file to your computer. Are you looking for better quality audio than that?

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I don't see it on Beatport or any of the other usual places. Hmm...

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There's the Jerry Bouthier edit of the Cosmo Vitelli remix on Soundcloud at http://soundcloud.com/jerrybouthier/lac ... mo-vitelli You could extract the audio from that to MP3 for free using Audacity with the Lame MP3 encoder.

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I can't vouch for this site, but you could try this link.

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You can get the originial from the UK iTunes store. That's not the extended mix you're looking for, though...

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If none of those work for you, let me know and I'll dig a little deeper.

pugbuddy · Post by **pugbuddy** » Sun Nov 13, 2011 3:28 am

agrogod wrote:OMG, its a scooter dream come true! Why, oh why don't they get it here in the states .

+1

BootScootin'FireFighter · Sun Nov 13, 2011 3:43 am

jrsjr wrote:You know that you can use Youtube-Mp3.org to extract the audio from that video, right? It's free and you just download the MP3 file to your computer. Are you looking for better quality audio than that?

Thanks John, that's exactly what I used and it worked great! I also found a few other "youtube only" tracks that I was able to download the same way.

Did you go to Indian Summer last weekend?

jrsjr · Post by **jrsjr** » Sun Nov 13, 2011 6:45 am

BootScootin'FireFighter wrote:
jrsjr wrote:You know that you can use Youtube-Mp3.org to extract the audio from that video, right? It's free and you just download the MP3 file to your computer. Are you looking for better quality audio than that?
Thanks John, that's exactly what I used and it worked great! I also found a few other "youtube only" tracks that I was able to download the same way.

Did you go to Indian Summer last weekend?

Hey glad it worked! Wish I could have gone to Indian Summer. We had company instead.

JHScoot · Post by **JHScoot** » Mon Nov 14, 2011 5:25 am

babblefish wrote:Another scootercentric (is that even a real word?) thing about Taiwan is, look closely at the video where they show the crosswalk at intersections. Some of them have this big painted outlined box just in front of the pedestrian crosswalk. These boxes are for scooters to gather waiting for the light to change. Cars are not allowed in these boxes if there are scooters there.

tell me babble in this part of the world do people look at scooters as a fun and practical way of getting around as well as economical, or is it purely a matter of economics and at the first sign of financial gain they dump the scoot and get a car?

or might some own scoots and a car? as every american car owner should

babblefish · Post by **babblefish** » Mon Nov 14, 2011 3:29 pm

JHScoot wrote:
babblefish wrote:Another scootercentric (is that even a real word?) thing about Taiwan is, look closely at the video where they show the crosswalk at intersections. Some of them have this big painted outlined box just in front of the pedestrian crosswalk. These boxes are for scooters to gather waiting for the light to change. Cars are not allowed in these boxes if there are scooters there.
tell me babble in this part of the world do people look at scooters as a fun and practical way of getting around as well as economical, or is it purely a matter of economics and at the first sign of financial gain they dump the scoot and get a car?

or might some own scoots and a car? as every american car owner should

They look at scooters as an appliance. An economical mode of transportation that doesn't take-up much space and can squeeze into/through tight spaces. The younger riders (teenagers) like to modify their scooters much like the ones' here like to modify their cars. The population density is very high in many areas of Asia plus most of the people live in apartments with very limited parking. On top of that, where many (most?) of our stores have parking lots, most of the stores in Asia do not. Street parking only. I noticed that in Taiwan, when people get paid more they tend to go buy a car as a status symbol, rarely because they really need one. But, they do not get rid of their scooters because it is still the prefered method of transportation and parking is still a pain in the rear. Also, cars in Taiwan literally cost at least twice as much as they do here in the U.S. due to their government putting heavy taxes on cars. So an 18K$ Toyota Corolla here is a 36K$ car in Taiwan. A 50K$ BMW here is a 100K$ car there.

Hence scooter shops are everywhere with some in the bigger cities being quite large with more than one floor. Shops that sell accessories and hop-up parts? You betcha, as common as Starbucks. I was going so say 7-11, but there are more Starbucks around here.

BTW: Kymco along with Sym are very popular brands over there.

Taiwan's version of the minivan.

Anyone seen my car? I can't find my car...

Just a typical commute day...

Not really scooter related, but I just had to share. OFC is "Obama Fried Chicken"

Phil P · Post by **Phil P** » Mon Nov 14, 2011 8:31 pm

One thing I noticed is nobody seems to have a windscreen on their
scooters. Is there a reason for this?

omniphil · Post by **omniphil** » Mon Nov 14, 2011 8:43 pm

Phil P wrote:One thing I noticed is nobody seems to have a windscreen on their
scooters. Is there a reason for this?

I don't think most people go fast enough to need a windshield..

In Hong Kong, Helmets were required and scooters went in and around traffic.

In Shanghai not many people wore a helmet and no eye protection at all. They had a separate scooter / bike lane and most people on scooters never went over 25 mph

I never saw people actually going "fast" on scooters. If it were me, I'd be going as fast as I could within reason on a separate scooter lane...

babblefish · Post by **babblefish** » Mon Nov 14, 2011 10:04 pm

omniphil wrote:
Phil P wrote:One thing I noticed is nobody seems to have a windscreen on their
scooters. Is there a reason for this?
I don't think most people go fast enough to need a windshield..

In Hong Kong, Helmets were required and scooters went in and around traffic.

In Shanghai not many people wore a helmet and no eye protection at all. They had a separate scooter / bike lane and most people on scooters never went over 25 mph

I never saw people actually going "fast" on scooters. If it were me, I'd be going as fast as I could within reason on a separate scooter lane...

In addition to what Omniphil said, windshields get in the way when you're trying to thread your way through dense scooter/car/people traffic. It's almost like trying to make your way through a crowd while holding an open umbrella. Outside the main city centers, people rode pretty fast, but within it's too crowded most of the time to go fast. Also, the part of Taiwan that I was living doesn't ever get cold enough for people to need a windshield. Lastly, because of the overall vehicle density, scooters get knocked over quite frequently where a windshield wouldn't last very long. Actually, I think the main reason is because windshields cost money. Probably another reason why I rarely saw a scooter with a topcase.

JHScoot · Post by **JHScoot** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 7:48 pm

hey babble i want one of those minivans!

thanks for your generous reply to my question. really brought it all into perspective for me

in short: Taiwan is a magical land of many scooters