25 June 2008

Bycicles

Many people asked me before I left if there were many bycicles in Taipei. I answered them that, according to the guides, very few. Well, the guides are a little bit wrong. The streets of Taipei don't have that China look of wide avenues with almost no cars and full of bikes. No, streets are full of cars, scooters, buses, scooters, trucks, scotters here, but there are also bycicles.

I would differentiate two populations: the ones who ride on Taida campus and the adventurous ones who throw themselves into fate's hands and ride on every street and avenue they can get into.

You can see loads of bikes in Taida campus, driving everywhere. There are some narrow lanes where it is a little bit exasperating to see how they try to squeeze through. But they don't speed generally and you can predict their trajectory to get out of their way. Except some stupid ones, most of the people go by really calmly. It's sad to see though, how badly many use the pedals or how low are their seats. It must be the heat. There is another thing I had never seen used so much. It doesn't matter if it rains or not, this is really useful


There are parking lots full of many bikes,

most of them very badly maintained, rusted, old. They rarely tie them to anything, except for locks between a wheel and the frame. I have not asked how many are stolen, but I woudn't be surprised if the number was very low.

Once we are out of campus, the spirit must become more intrepid. Cars, scooters, trucks drive fast and twisting across lanes. This does not stop a good amount of people to get into the road and keep on going.

They are usually close to the right hand side, but not all. Many are young and follow a good rhythm of pedalling, even if many do not seem to want to get tired, maybe because of the heat. But others are fairly old people, who go very slowly wherever they fancy, which can be anywhere, and may be hauling large bags.

It is unavoidable that you find bikers on the sidewalk. They are more civilized than motorbikes on the sidewalks, slower, but they call to my dark side sometimes. Maybe it's the East, but I am less and less upset by them as time goes by.

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