We are a city of scooters

 

I took a little ride downtown last weekend to see a friend at Taipei’s annual camera exhibition.  It was pretty much a geekfest, and I was happy to be one of them.  The fortunate news is that I only spent nt$200 (US$6) and it was on a completely non-photography related item.

Anyway, there were a few overpasses that I crossed and one of them had a view of a few scooters.  This is a perfect representation of what you’d see at nearly any intersection in Taipei, scooters scrambling for their small section of the road.

I wish I was down there with them

 

Construction is always a hassle for commuters

Scooter names

By far the most common private transportation on the streets of Taipei is a scooter. Laura and I add to those numbers by frequently making the short commute to school on our scooter. Rain or shine we know that if we need to get somewhere quickly it will have to be by scooter. Driving a car means that you have to use the 3X rule, meaning that if you spend 10 minutes on the scooter getting somewhere you can count on a 30 minute trip by car to the same place.

I can’t remember the statistics, but there are FAR more scooters than cars. With so many scooter companies and models, naming each model has become very creative. Some of the names are probably just poor translations, but they’re entertaining anyway.

Here’s a collection of scooter names that we see each day on our walk to school.

Top Boy

Freeway 125 – Let the good time roll by Freeway

Smile

Man – Enjoy yourself boy (?)

Comet

ChaCha

Herself – Go for the….. (couldn’t read the rest)

Filly – In touch with tomorrow

Fever – Go for the sun and fun

Easy – The more you like