Taiwanese & Balinese Scooter Norms

Article Table of Contents

• Taiwanese innovations around scooter movements
  • The Scooter Box
  • The ‘green for scooters first’ light cycle
  • Masking Norms
• Balinese innovations around scooter movements
  • Making excellent usage of small spaces
• Contrasting a gentle style of movement with American-style rights-of-way/entitlements
  • Loud engines/racing engines as entitlement and supportive of Bad Things
  • Other forms of entitlements common on the mobility networks of the greater united states
• Footnotes

Sometimes I’ve told people “I ride with Asian scooter norms.” or “I ride with Taiwanese and Balinese scooter norms”. Here’s what I mean by this statement.

a ‘norm’ is ‘something common, accepted, sometimes codified in law, but certainly accepted as ‘right’ or ‘acceptable’ or ‘ethical’.

There’s a distinctive vibe on scooters in Bali, and since I’ve spent a bunch of time there (partially because of their lovely scooter norms!) I brought with me lots of habits and skills from Bali, and some of the scooter-specific social/technological innovations common in Taiwan.

Since I ride in the USA in ways affected by what’s common in Bali. I also do some ‘mental imports’ of norms from Taiwan in some specific ways.

Taiwanese innovations around scooter movements #

Lets discuss Taiwanese norms first.

I once had a 24 hour layover there, and it wasn’t my first time in the city, so I already knew I was looking forward to exploring it.

The first time I’d been there I hadn’t yet ever ridden a scooter, and wouldn’t have wanted to rent a scooter, and indeed, without an ‘international drivers license’ copy of my american drivers license, which includes a motorcycle endorsement, I wouldn’t have been able to rent a scooter in Taiwan.

Anyway, this time in the city, I had the motorcycle endorsement, and a new/updated international drivers license, and I had plenty of experience on my scooter in the USA.

I’d brought my gloves, my mask, ear plugs, various things to make the riding comfortable. the place I stayed was next door to a scooter rental place, it was cheap, and I love riding scooters around.

here’s a link to a map that shows my exact trip around for the day. Some of the line is the fast train from the airport..

Here’s an image of what opens on the map, if you click the above link:

Taiwan has exceptional scooter norms, and most of the people moving around are on scooters.

Most of the space is still given to/taken up by the small number of people in very large cars, but, unlike the norms of the greater united states, the cities were never quite torn up (‘urban renewal’) with car colonialization quite the same.

Taiwan’s mobility network is still over-affected by American road norms, of course.

The Scooter Box #

A common feature in some junctions, especially juntions of a certain size, is a box painted on the ground ahead of where the cars and large vehicles stop, where all the scooter riders collect.

Click this link to open a google street view image of a junction in Taipei. See the scooters in the painted scooter box?

There is a scooter logo painted inside the box, it’s a ubiquitous feature of the environment. It makes things better for everyone in so many ways.

Scooters filter to this box through stopped traffic, and then they can go in a blob when they light changes. I treat american intersections similarly, the (usually empty) crosswalk space as ‘the scooter box’. If there are people in the crosswalk, I’ll still go to the front, I’ll just stay out of the crosswalk until it’s empty.

The ‘green for scooters first’ light cycle #

The red lights blink red/white a few times before before they turn green.

When the light starts blinking red/white (sorta a 3-2-1 countdown to the green light), the scooters can go (from the scooter box), then when the light turns green, the large vehicles can go.

in the USA, when I am on my scooter, I might treat intersections as if they’re equipped with the same feature.

Because I am so close to the front of the intersection (see prior point, choosing to hang out in the bike-box/cross-walk) I can easily see long distances in both directions, and I always know exactly when the light will change, thus can choose to give myself pre-emptive green. ¹

So, from Taipei I bring the concept of the bike box to the USA, and the concept of the pre-green This contributes to my own safety, as a few common ways of getting injured on a vehicle like a scooter is getting rear ended by someone not seeing you, as they’re stopping. I never stop behind a stopped car, I’m thus ineligible for this sort of accident. I also am always mostly alone on the streets on my scooter, I am rarely inside of a blob of cars, I’m usually ahead of it or behind it.

Masking Norms #

It’s odd to me in the USA that wearing masks when on/near roads isn’t more common. It’s ubiquitous in Asia, and I wear a mask 100% of the time I’m on my scooter in the USA. Here’s a long thing about my head/lung/skin protection norms.

Balinese innovations around scooter movements #

Bali is a pretty mountainous place, so lots of the cleverness of Bali’s mobility network is in the narrow, winding paths. Entire parking garages can be fit in a space smaller than two american parking spaces.

This section could be 30 points long. Maybe it’ll grow with time. I have lots of video footage from Bali, I’ll add it here eventually.

Making excellent usage of small spaces #

While vehicles are moving or stationary, they put small spaces to clever use. I’m now used to evaluating american road networks as I evaluated Bali’s road networks - if cars are stopped, one goes around them, in a peacful way.

Here’s what Balinese scooting norms looks like.²

I’m trying to convey a sense of “every place has a distinctive way of doing something, some other places do things differently, sometimes its better”.

Contrasting a gentle style of movement with American-style rights-of-way/entitlements #

When driving on the roads of the greater united states, or walking or biking or scooting or whatever, it’s extremely common to encounter entitled behavior.

Even if you do not operate in an entitled way, it’s common to see someone else. Vehicles not slowing down for pedestrians passing ahead of them is a form of entitlement, for instance.

The concept of ‘right of way’ is a form of created-from-nothing entitlement. (It’s necessary to create the concept of jaywalking.

Bali’s road networks and the people who use them don’t have these american-style entitlements, and where there isn’t entitlements, there can grow things like expectations. There are very few roads with center lines painted on them, for instance, and sometimes the roads are too narrow for vehicles to pass in opposite directions at speed. No sweat, it’s easy! When encountering a vehicle going the other way, the drivers coordinate pulling around each other, letting a tire run off the asphalt and onto packed dirt, and then back.

There’s much less tailgating

Loud engines/racing engines as entitlement and supportive of Bad Things #

loud engines are very popular in the USA. I view loud engines, or loud exhausts (including nearly every motorcycle) as supporting rape culture!

Loud engines normalize the indiscriminate (or highly discriminate) harassment of others. It can be targeted, like revving an engine “at” a person as the vehicle operator passes by on the street, or it can be non-targeted, and just everyone with the misfortune of hearing the engine is affected.

I cannot endure the company of someone who even possesses a vehicle like this. I hate this aspect of car culture. Loud engines normalize harassment, dedignifying behavior, ruthless centering of the self, it’s the same kinds of entitlements necessary for rape culture, thus, I call it rape culture.

I can tell when someone who’s walking in a quiet place becomes aware of the sound of the engine on my scooter. Even at medium acceleration, it’s not very loud. When I’m trying to be quiet, I’m almost completely silent. And at max volume, it’s still not very loud and it’s certainly not harsh. I also ride in a smooth way, I don’t inflict audible assault on the people I ride pass.

If someone elects to make a lot of noise with their vehicle, I log that as a form of entitlement.

Other forms of entitlements common on the mobility networks of the greater united states #

Heavy window tints, hiding the driver’s head and making it impossible for someone else to make eye contact, or to see where the driver’s head is pointed (pretty useful when seeing if the driver is maybe about to pull out in front of you)

Really bright LED headlights that blind everyone that the headlights land upon, especially if they’re way beyond the line of sight for the driver.

Tailgating. it’s no different than standing really close behind someone in a line, breathing in their ear.

Being heavy on the gas and brake, or driving in a way that risks anyone else’s safety.

I find scooting all over the world, and even in the USA to be relaxing and peaceful, often enough. More than a bicycle, for some reasons. More than a motorcycle, for some reasons. More than a car, for some reasons. More than my feet, for some reasons.

I’d like to have some videos where I try to parse or explain some of how I move through junctions or road segments safely, but recording the video, audio, editing it all together, has thus far not really happened. I tried something like that here, and don’t love it.

Footnotes #