Letters to Lisa Part 7

Letters to Lisa Part 7
Bad Driving Theory (Are Your Eyes Open or are You Using the Force?!)
Dateline: Early April

Dear Lisa,

This letter is kinda long. Get some coffee and a muffin.

I’ve told you, and anyone else who would listen, how terrible and dangerous the road are here. And me being the chronic “thinker” that I am really wants to make sense of this. I want to figure this out for different reasons: 1) survival of the fittest. My daily brush’s with physical harm is a tremendous incentive! 2) Taiwan people seem to have a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personality in relationship to motor vehicles and walking. They walk at a snails pace on the sidewalk, but drive like someone set their hair on fire. 3) There seems to be no moral compass or logic when it comes to driving, parking and spacial relationships.

Having read those comments, you might think that I hate it here. On the contrary! I like it here very much. I just want to understand. Is it part of Taiwan’s culture to drive bad? Here’s my theory, based on nothing more than my observation and meandering experience.

I am no social scientist or expert on Taiwan history and am a relatively smart guy. This is what I know for sure. Taiwan came to the Industrialization party late. Taiwan industrialized about 50 years ago. And they did it very quickly.

Unlike the US, who developed the motor vehicle and use of it and roads over many, many years. It seems Taiwan got these things, motorbikes and cars, fully developed with virtually no idea how to use them “properly”. One day they had bicycles and the next they had a motorbike. Logic, or at least my logic, dictates that if you give somebody a new machine with no rules or history on using the dang thing, then you will develop a lot of very BAD habits, very quickly. If there are no boundaries at the beginning, the first uses of these machines become the norm and are passed from on generation to the next. With each generation habits remain the same but the advancement in technology, the machines get stronger and faster. The need to do things fast and efficient in a sense drives a self serving need on the roads, leading to what I, with my US sensibilities, would call very reckless and care-less driving. People just don’t care about others on the road.

Does that stem from an uncaring heart? I don’t think so. It’s got to be cultural….right. It would seemingly stem from the need to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. I understand that. What don’t understand is the seemingly lack of acknowledgement that some practices are inherently dangerous and what one person does effects the others around him/her causing of chain reaction of events with the other drivers. If it were one person behaving in this way, no problem, but, everyone behaving this way, creates a never ending stream of negative actions and reactions, making traffic slower, not faster. For instance; A bus has stopped because it wants to turn left. Several people pass the bus, on the left hand side and crossing over the yellow center line to do so. The bus can’t turn and people in the oncoming lane have to avoid the person/people that are passing the bus. It creates all sorts of turmoil beside and behind them. All of this is not to mention what’s happening on the right side of the bus with scooter and cars trying to pass there. Now add me and several other people who are walking along the side of the road because there is no sidewalk or because there is no place to walk on the sidewalk because scooters are parked there. My ten minute walk to school is always some combination of shock, fear, annoyance and sometimes humor. (I learning not to take it so seriously.)

Maybe there is some sort of symbiotic relationship with Taiwan people and driving. One that I just can’t see because you’d think there would be dead people lying all over the place. There isn’t. I know a little about Chaos Theory, not much but a little. In Chaos Theory, everything looks totally random on the surface, but if you study it long enough, you’ll see patterns. Again, just another stab in the dark to find some meaning.

I have no doubt that if you grew up in this mass of driving craziness you might not see the inherent problems in it. But maybe they do. I know many people do. I know people in Taiwan who do not ride scooters or will not allow their children to ride scooters because the traffic is too dangerous. Also, you can ask ANYONE if the traffic is dangerous and they will give you an unequivocal YES.

I know there are established laws and rules of the road. Just like the US, you have to have, or at least you’re supposed to have, a drivers license. And to get a drivers license you have to take a test about the rules, etc. You see where this is going, right. But the rules just simply don’t apply. It really is every man for himself, survival of the fittest.

Yes, I know, the US, especially Columbia with its college students, has it’s share of knuckle heads behind the wheel. But it still is NOT a common practice, as it is here, to honk your horn to warn other drivers that you are running a red light. As if, honking your horn first somehow makes it more safe or acceptable.
There are Public Service Announcements for people to use the cross walk. That’s great, but what would be better would be if drivers actually acknowledged the cross walks. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the cross walk, the rule of the road is cars and motorbikes first, pedestrians second. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve almost been hit in the cross walk usually from behind or being blind-sided. It is also a very common practice to ride your motorbike on the wrong side of the road going in the wrong direction.

I’ve learned to look 360 degrees when I cross the street, but people seem to come out of nowhere sometimes. And some look at me like, “What are you doing?! Get out of the way you idiot.” Dude! You’re the one on the wrong side of the road going the wrong way! But most people don’t acknowledge me, as a person, at all. I’m just another obstacle to negotiate in their path. But here’s the trick. As I’m trying not to get hit by this person, I sometimes almost get hit by another person that is going around the person on the motorcycle that is about to run over the idiot foreigner in the road. People, I’m in the crosswalk!!!!! Are your eyes open or are you just using the force!

The key is adaptability. Remember the survival of the fittest nature of the road. I’m still a brown rabbit in the arctic, but I’ve adapted. My vision and hearing has improved. So I can usually see or hear the wolf or hawk that’s trying to eat me before it’s too late. But even the keenest rabbit can get eaten. I only hope they can find smaller weaker rabbit to eat in stead of me. Hahaha!!! I plan to be an old grey haired rabbit that will die fat and happy in his bed.
Sorry, this turned into another rant about the traffic. Back to the Conclusion of my Theory…

Everyone knows the right way to drive. Everyone knows that traffic is dangerous. BUT, nobody is going to change. I believe, the driving practices here are too embedded in the culture. They began badly and now it’s the norm. Rules, laws, are merely suggestions. The police seem to acknowledge this. It is a rare event to see someone stopped for a traffic violation.

A world view perspective is I know there are much worse drivers in the world than Taiwan people. I’m told surviving on the roads in India is nothing short of heroic. You’ve got to deal with crazy traffic AND cows!

So, as I say my prayers at night, and I do say my prayers at night, I thank God everyday that I didn’t get hurt and I didn’t have to avoid crashing into a cow. (Ironically, something I actually have had to do in the US while attending Baker U. Lots of farms around there with the occasional stray cow.)

Sorry for that rant in the middle.
Wish me luck.
D