One of the biggest things you have to get used to in Taipei is scooters. Taiwan is the scooter capital of the world. 20 years ago when I lived in Taiwan scooters outnumbered cars, but now that is no longer the case. Taipei is filled with millions of cars AND millions of scooters and it makes for a real chaotic mess at times. Taipei is heavily urbanized, filled with alleys and narrow streets making a scooter a vital piece of machinery if you need to run to the market or zip somewhere on an errand. What makes it crazy is that there are no special lanes for scooters and bikes....cars, bikes, buses and scooters all must make there way.
In Taiwan, driving in a car with scooters on four sides, or riding on a scooter with a bus on your right and a car on your left is more art than skill. Traffic control is there, but in Taiwan it is more guidance than hard and fast rules. The police do little except direct the flow and that leads to lots of ad hoc maneuvering that can drive one crazy. Indeed if one got mad at every guy who cut you off or scooter that squeezed in on your side you'd quickly have a stroke. Instead one must be very zen when you drive, thinking of your lane as a river sometimes there is a rock blocking the lane....a driver who blocks the lane to run into a store and buy something.....or a leaf that floats across your path....a scooter or a bus turning right from the left lane... and like the water in a river you must just move steadily around the obstacles and take notice of the leaf. You want to turn right.....don't do it quickly, just turn on your light and gradually flow around the corner. Of course some jerk will make a sharp turn, but I can deal with it...b/c I am the river.
