Taiwanese & Balinese Scooter Norms

Article Table of Contents

• Interesting scooter movement patterns noticed in Taiwan
  • The Scooter Box
  • The ‘box turn’ strategy for making certain left turns
  • The Pre-green
  • Masking Norms
• Balinese innovations around scooter movements
  • The ‘green for scooters first’ light cycle
  • Making excellent usage of small spaces, parking edition
  • Scooters flowing around
• American Legal Norms
  • An uncontrolled vs. controlled junction
  • On Headlights
  • On noise
• 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.

Interesting scooter movement patterns noticed in Taiwan #

Lets discuss some norms common to Taiwan, 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 to Taiwan, I’d only a few times ridden a 50cc scooter in Greece on a few days long climbing trip. I didn’t particularly enjoy the experience, it sorta soured me on scooters, overall. The vehicle was loud and rattly and barely got even just me up hills, let alone me and a passenger and gear. Years later, I learned, in an experiential way, that a 125cc scooter can be a very different experience, much improved. I then ended up with a 170cc scooter, and loved it, I still have it, have ridden it everywhere.

So, this time in Taipei, 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 ridden my 170cc scooter to Canada and back from Denver.

I’d brought my gloves, my mask, ear plugs, various things to make the riding comfortable, as I planned on making regular use of rental scooters. the place I stayed was next door to a scooter rental place, it was cheap, and I love riding scooters around, and found everything about it interesting. For instance, it’s nearly impossible to rent a scooter, or even a motorcycle, in the USA. bummer.

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 junctions 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. (which changes a second early for scooters vs. regular cars)

I treat american intersections similarly, the (usually empty) crosswalk space functions for me 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 ‘box turn’ strategy for making certain left turns #

To go left on certain roads, in Taiwan, one first goes right. Or proceeds around the junction with the shape of a box, but different than the above ‘scooter box’.

Regardless, I use the concept when crossing American junctions, especially anything that seems like an arterial. Left turns on arterials, in particular, are very difficult/dangerous, or at least can be, and this box turn is a reliable problem solving strategy.

Here’s a bunch of youtube videos explaining this concept: taiwan left turn, youtube.

This video is particularly nice, the embed starts at the 43 second mark:

Here’s my written explanation:

for certain junctions of certain geometries/dynamics, to go left, one first goes right. the junction is usually marked with a sign, which means ‘it is not expected that you collect on the left to go left, but on the right’. As one enters the junction, one pulls their scooter to a sometimes painted box, at the front-most part of the column of traffic waiting to proceed straight. When the light changes for them, they go straight, so do you, and it’s as if you’d gone left through the junction.

Another way of phrasing it:

where there is no access to a a protected left turn, to prevent otherwise having to wait in a risky spot, darting through gaps in traffic (something so common with american intersections).

one pulls to the front of the line of traffic waiting at the light to proceed straight. When it’s their turn, you go with them.

It’s very unenjoyable to feel ‘pinned’ between fast traffic driving straight at you, as you’re waiting for a gap in one or two lanes, to go left, while having fast traffic passing by on the right side, continuing, because they are not going left.

this is all solved by the traffic bean, by the way. Making every junction sorta roundabout-ish, with the right curve geometries to get a first-in-first out vehicle flow. The junctions can be made smaller, and can serve more vehicles at a smoother, more interleaved rate. my fantasy is to be able to say ‘coming soon to a junction near you’, plausibly. ¹

Here’s what that alternative, a quick right turn to obtain a left turn, looks like:

Painted on the ground, ahead of even the aforementioned scooter box, even closer to the junction, there is another square, it’s the collection point for scooters wanting to make a left turn.

Thus, one first makes a right turn and stop at the very front of the traffic waiting for the light to change (in this box painted on the ground).

Then, they wait the rest of the light cycle, out of the flow of traffic

When the light changes and turns green for them, they now get to go through the junction with all the other scooter riders, just as protected as could be.

I use this strategy to make left turns sometimes on my scooter in the states.

There’s lots of signage for this in Taiwan, and after experiencing the first one, it was easy, peaceful, safe.

I found riding my scooter around Taipei to be quite peaceful and safe.

The Pre-green #

Because all scooters collect at the scooter box, they have better views to the cross streets, and are smaller and do best moving as clumps anyway.

The light counts down, and in some different ways will turn green for scooters before it turns green for cars. (in the videos from the box turn/left turn section, a few different green light countdowns are visible)

I call it ‘taking the pre-green’, and is something I do in America, often enough. Some junctions will turn green for pedestrians crossing a second or two before turning green for cars.

I’ll treat the pedestrian walk as a green light for me on my scooter, if I want. I never assume that cross traffic is stopping because of a light, by the way, I watch vehicles pointed at me/where I want to be very carefully.

but wait there is more

So, I’ll take the honest pre-green, too. It still looks red in some ways, in some directions, and I’ve met some timer in my head and I go.

I know when the light is going to change, especially because I’m so far to the front of the intersection I can easily see the light for the other direction of traffic. I know when it goes yellow, red, and I can stare straight down the line of traffic. Some of the junctions I’ve gone through thousands of times.

I can tell (and indeed always note) if there is a vehicle, and if there is a vehicle, I note if the speed is changing or the same, what it is, where, and so much more. intricacies of where the driver’s head is pointed (even if it’s not relevant to me), or I might note whatever path they’re taking across whatever stretch of asphalt they’re on. If they seem attentive or not.

Anyway, if there is no car especially, I’ll ‘take the pre-green’ and will advance through the junction before the light turns green for the larger vehicles, as is common in Taiwan.

I have a well-calibrated and sensitive process I use to go through junctions, safely. I have itchy brake fingers, I rarely rush. When I’m alone and on familiar paths, and it’s early in the morning perhaps, like 6:30a, I sometimes ride with a different energy than if I have a passenger, or a load of groceries, or it’s at night or it’s rush hour instead.

Honestly, I’d rather not be perceived, so to anyone who’s ever seen me on my scooter and felt personally affronted (this has happened at least a few times), to you I’d say:

Honestly, I wish I wasn’t there, then, for you to have to have seen me either. And if I were there, I wish you didn’t even notice me. Better luck next time, to both of us. Can I tell you a little about robert moses? He’s sorta why the roads are the way they are, and the way that ‘enforcement’ works on them the way that it does.

So, from Taipei I bring the concept of the bike box to the USA. As well as the ‘left turn via bike box’ strategy.

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, and rarely in front of moving cars, I’m thus ineligible for this sort of accident.

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 now wear a mask 100% of the time I’m on my scooter. It’s like earplugs, to me. Ubiquitous, I store at least one mask in my scooter seat at all times, next to my rain layer. 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.

The ‘green for scooters first’ light cycle #

Often enough on the occasional light-mediated road junctions in Bali, one notices that the red lights blink red/white a few times before before they turn green. Sometimes similar to things visible in Taiwan, sometimes different.

When the light starts blinking red/white (sorta a 3-2-1 countdown to the green light), the scooters can go, 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. ²

Making excellent usage of small spaces, parking edition #

Bali sees endless creativity with what can be packed on a scooter, where scooters can be ridden/fit, like gates and doors and ramps, and how they can be parked. (sorta anywhere)

Scooters are small, can be easily moved, even if just a few inches, when parked and locked. Any event or venue or store or compound had functionally infinite parking, on site, mere steps from the destination. As parking would fill up, either parking attendents or newly arriving-by-scooter-visitors would jostle the parked scooters around a bit to park them more densely, and then would park their own vehicle. It was common to leave scooters without the locked steering column, and then the moving them around was even easier. Very convenient with parades. People walking ahead of the parade or street festival would just move around/clump together the parked vehicles, moving them as little as a few inches, once or twice as far as 20 feet up the curb. Similar to in Thailand if double-parking, or parking someone in, it’s convention to leave the vehicle in neutral so it can be rolled out of the way.

These are all nice norms!

If someone is making scooters orderly and trying to pack them densely, hundreds of scooters can be fit, easily, in a space that could be walked across in just a few steps.

Thus, lots of parking was on the other side of a narrow gate, or a narrow path, and to pass through these small spaces was to feel very aware of having been transported from one place to another. Balinese doors and gates deserves its own blog post.

I park my scooter at my house inside of a gated, locked, courtyard area. Under a roof, protected from rain and snow and sun, and with a cover on it. It’s nearly invisible in several ways, and it is the most convenient parking spot on site. I always have the best parking, because my eye is well-refined, at finding creative parking spots.

Scooters flowing around #

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 peaceful way. It’s easy and normal to give deference to whatever user of the space can be identified as most vulnerable. Pedestrians get priority over everyone, then scooters, then cars.

In bali, paint is rarely placed on roads. road markings don’t often exist. Either center lines, shoulders, and much more. And where they do exist, they’re still much more of a guideline than is normal in the greater united states.

Here’s a slice of what Balinese scooting norms looks like, on their most intensive highway. This is, truly, the largest highway on the island.³

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”.

I’ll find videos of some of the smaller roads, the ones that I usually encountered. I rode my scooter on the highway very rarely when I was there.

American Legal Norms #

Often-enough I record myself riding my scooter around and I sometimes want to discuss how I go through junctions. I go through most junctions in a similar-enough way.

I note wanting to reference this page and some of these norms. Additionally, in some places, 50 cc scooters are legal equivalents with a regular pedal-powered bicycle. So, in a stretch, a scooter can do what a bike can do. That mine happens to have a larger-than-50-cc-engine in it is… true.

Bikes are ‘allowed’ to treat stop signs as yields. Rolling stop + idaho stop or something. Red lights are ‘allowed’ to be treated as stop signs. I have a firm stance on jaywalking anyway. I can move my scooter at the same speed, agility, and ‘footprint’ that I can move myself on my own two feet, so sometimes I treat it exactly as I would me on my own feet. Just better carrying capacity, and easier to move around with.

An uncontrolled vs. controlled junction #

So, I discussed navigating a ‘controlled’ junction (those are anything where the path is affected by a stop sign or traffic light), and now lets discuss ‘navigating’ a ‘uncontrolled’ junction

if you’re driving through a four-way junction, and cross-traffic has a stop sign and you do not, that is an ‘uncontrolled’ junction, in at least one, probably two, probably many more than two, ways.

Another form of ‘uncontrolled junction’ is every time an alley and a street intersect.

So street-street junctions can be uncontrolled, alley/street junctions. There’s more. They’re sorta like bollards. Once you know what they are/how to identify them, you might notice them everywhere.

Imagine a sign hung, that says ‘cross-traffic does not stop’. That sorta implies that the junction is uncontrolled, so you must wait until circumstances support your crossing.

(a traffic bean brings all inbound speeds to ~10 mph and makes it so all traffic comes exclusively from the left, at 10 mph, thus one doesn’t need to worry about ‘cross traffic does not stop’ signs/dynamics. It can be made large, sorta like a traffic ‘ribbon’, if necessary, or really small)

how I go through uncontrolled junctions #

Because an uncontrolled junction is a matter of timing, passing through it can be a rare and special opportunity, especially for people in cars. Their mobility is less, the pressure they feel from lights and stop signs and other cars is much, much more than I feel. If I see a car with any sorta of ‘darting’ energy, or heavy on the gas, late on the brake, I stay well clear of them and anywhere they could bounce, if they hit someone else.

if I see a person approaching from the left or right, as I’m passing straight, I’ll assume they don’t see me until I have reason to think they do. I might come to a FULL STOP and let them go through first. Why would I not? Because I believe in a fantasy of a thing called ‘right of way’? would never be me.

I also check junctions for people crossing them by foot. I also am aware of, and stay out of, ‘the dooring zone’

The dooring zone #

when passing a car or a line of cars, parallel parked, imagine any of them (or all of them) opened the drivers side door all the way.

Any part of the lane that would be reachable by the door (so, an aweful lot of bike lanes, of course) is called ‘the door zone’.

My vehicle is not a bike, no one expects me to ride in the dooring zone, least of all me. But I’m intensely aware of it when on my scooter.

That said, I might squish into the right side of a lane, to ease by some vehicle that is proceeding the other direction, or I won’t, or both.

I go through all junctions sorta in a roundabout shape. Depending on speeds and cross streets, sometimes as I roll up on a junction, to reduce my exposure to complexity, I’ll plan on taking a right turn, instead of going straight. That eliminates from concern all traffic coming from the right, and I only have to ensure that the lane from the left is clear.

I can do that, in a variety of ways, and based on the shapes of the junctions, vehicles parked around it, I can ‘clear’ with my eyes the left lane out a certain number of feet.

Anywhere from 30 feet/3 meters (a pretty small bit of visibility, I wouldn’t go into a junction until I had a lot more than 30 feet of visibility) to 300 feet/100 meters or sometimes far beyond.

So, I can plan on going right, and then sometimes I might make a u-turn, and then as I approach the junction from the opposite side, I might proceed straight (a j-turn, mentioned above) or make another right turn, which puts me as on the opposite side of the junction, going in the same direction as when I started it.

Sometimes I make eye contact with other people, who’ve obviously watched the whole thing.

For example, imagine the POV of a commercial vehicle driver, at the front of a line of traffic, waiting at a red light, who can see me approaching from many stopped cars away on the opposite side. I ride to the front of the line of traffic, make a casual right turn… then pop a quick u-turn after finding a good gap, making another right turn. Many a nod of appreciation has been given.

Sometimes it’s a quick right turn-u-turn-right turn, or, if it’s ‘really fast’ it follows the shape of a traffic circle or a traffic bean, through the junction.

At night, sometimes it’s much easier to see cars from much farther away, because most vehicles (certainly not all!) have headlights illuminated.

On Headlights #

This can be annoying, as the recent proliferation of LED-type headlights is abhorrent, and can make visibility, especially with oncoming traffic and their headlights pointed right at you, very challenging.

They blind one with the light, and cast deep shadows, making one’s ability to perceive intricacies of the surface one is riding over more challenging.

At full, deep night, with no moon light or street lights, I might ride at not above 40 or 45 miles per hour, even on big roads where people in cars often go much faster. but even at that fast speed (not fast to motorcycles, very fast to someone like me used to mostly bicycle riding, before this) I can easily stop the vehicle well within the cone of light cast by my high beams. Momentum (thus breaking distance) increases geometrically with speed. I vastly prefer to be on a road alone, with no one behind me, following me, and no one driving directly at me from the opposite direction, going the other direction.

On noise #

I don’t like to spook animals, or people, and I usually am quiet enough that I see people long before they notice me. There’s plenty of visual queues people give off when they notice me, be they walking or driving. It’s pretty clear in some situations if they have or have not noticed me, and I respond accordingly.

This is part of why I dislike heavy window tint on vehicles. It makes it much, much harder to see anything about the vehicle operator. I know that’s the point, in some ways. Because of my helmet being an extension of my head, to the degree anyone cares, it’s laughably easy to see where my head is pointed, and sometimes easy eye contact can be made. Body language can be so expressive.

And that’s just a person walking. If they’re in a car, I guarantee notice them before they notice me. I counted how often I check my rear view mirrors, recently, just so I know if there is anyone behind me, per block, and the answer was never less than three times.

(another reason to use a ‘scooter box’ is that one of the main multi-vehicle car crash types involving two-wheeled vehicles is the driver of the car behind them not noticing that they’re stopped behind a car in front of them. Their eye never notices the stopped motorcyclist, and they just run the car right into them, from behind.)

Because I almost never stop behind vehicles (and I check intensively the behaviors of the drivers of vehicles behind me, if I do), this entire accident class is unavailable for me to experience.

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. not none! but there’s something distinct about american road networks. I sometimes get annoyed, feels like I have to defend that sentiment, then I ask about the driving experience of the other person, and it’s limited. how do I proceed?

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! deep breath.

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 #