Taichung scooter city

Detroit is known as Motor City, Taichung could be known as Scooter City! If you are fan of scooters then this is the place for you! Taichung is the definitive scooter lovers paradise, complete with clouds of two stroke engine fumes and very few laws to control their usage.

True, I can understand why people like to ride scooters, because Taichung streets rarely have side walks and those that do exist have often been utilised as business space for road-side eateries, of which there is an unnecessary abundance I would suggest. Also, there is little place to park a car and a randomly designed and unlinked bus service with which to navigate around the city, makes life here without a scooter pretty inconvenient.

The modern scooter is a bug-eyed pest carrying all and sundry on their daily routines, from little old ladies to traffic wardens to entire families. The spread of this vermin across Taiwan has remained unchecked by the government and now there is pretty much a scooter for every person in Taiwan today, that is 23 million scooters, argh! Making the air in urban areas pretty much unbreathable without the aid of a mask, this is especially true at a main junction during rush hour-don't forget your respirator!

Take a look at this Flickr link and you'll see what I mean!