While not paved with gold, the streets of Taiwan are paved with two other things....blood and broken scooter parts. It's quite common to come across the scene above. So much so that you better make sure your slippers have thick soles cause you will be stepping on a lot of broken glass as you walk through the city.
Scooters are everywhere in Taiwan, they are by far the most prevalent form of transportation. Some even report that there are more scooters in Taiwan than people. And with all those scooters, it's no wonder there are so many accidents.
The accident rates aren't really reported anymore. This is because about five years ago a government official said that Taiwan has the highest vehicle fatality rate in the world. Since then the government has been backtracking and numbers have been fudged or just not given at all.
So you'll have to forgive me that all my numbers are coming from before the numbers magically disappeared. Essentially reports were that over 2/3rds of scooter drivers will have an accident, while over 40% of scooter drivers will have a serious accident. But the belief is that they are being conservative with their numbers, and that there are also accidents which aren't reported. The scariest number mentioned is that over 25% of all scooter accidents result in death.
That's kind of crazy that if you ride a scooter in Taiwan not only are you pretty much guaranteed that you will have an accident of some sort, but there is almost a 50% chance that you will have a serious and/or fatal accident.
From personal experience I can say that outside my apartment there are at least three accidents a day (and that's just when I'm home to notice). Everything to fender benders, to broken body parts, to even worse. And this is just in front of my building. Walking the streets you will usually come across some accident. Police talking to some scooter riders sitting on the side of the road holding some body part while an ambulance speeds away with somebody in a stretcher.
But before you go blaming scooters for being dangerous. I should tell you that over half of all traffic accidents are caused by drunk drivers, and people accuse this number of being too conservative. I can say that from experience, there is no such thing as drunk driving in Taiwan. What i mean is that it's so prevalent that it's just considered normal driving. There is no consideration to being drunk.
I have never seen or even heard of somebody saying they are too drunk to drive and taking a taxi home instead. I'm sure this does happen, but I've never been witness to it. Around the city, especially in the more residential areas of the city are, for lack of a better word, Taiwanese style pubs. Basically family style restaurants where friends will go to drink with each other. Walking my dog at night I see loads of drunk people walk out of these places and get into their cars and on their scooters and drive away. The most egregious offender was a guy who fell down three times on his short walk to his truck and then drove away.
What is done about all this? There was a time when the government was basically saying "Hey you can get a scooter, but you should know that you are pretty much screwed if you do." (i'm paraphrasing). but that campaign stopped a long time ago. Scooters are big business in Taiwan. not just new and used sales, but there are thousands of scooter repair shops all over the city. So there seems no way to reduce the demand for scooters without crippling Taiwan's economy.
When it comes to drunk driving though there is much to be done. One reason it's so prevalent here is that the penalties and punishments for drunk driving are so low. And there is an unwritten belief that many police officers can be bribed. Meaning many drunk drivers are those people who know they can get away with it if they pay enough.
But that's ok, I'm doing my part by no longer having a motorcycle nor a car. It's my protest of how poorly Taiwan handles it's large drunk driving problem. Yeah that's it! It has nothing to do with how infuriatingly troublesome it is to find a parking spot in the city.
