Taiwan Blog Feed

Taipei Taxis usually have some surprises up their sleeves, with multiple DVD players, karaoke systems, and imaginative nicotine delivery systems. Here are a couple of recent ones that made me smile sitting in the back listening to wailing Chinese pop music.


This one was great - the guy had two cell phones that perfectly squeezed into the space between the steering wheel and the airbag (now that would really be speed dialing if he crashes). The fact that the other phone was a Sony Ericsson made me question which came first - the car or the phone? And what was on the screen when I got in after landing? - a 3G web site of flights landing at the airport.


Slightly less practical, I admit - but why bother about being able to see out, when it is just so pretty!

Nick prompted me last Sunday to head out with Justin for a pure fixie riding escapade off into the sunset. It's another twist on the 'getting together with friends' Sundays, that seem to be blending in so well into my life ... looking forward to more klicks in future.


Head of the peleton


Break away



Wind in our hair


Chase


On the boardwalk

Cycle Lanes in Taipei

The incredible increasing interest in cycling in the last year is encouraging the city government to install cycle lanes along some of the major streets in the city. It's a great initiative, and I appreciate the spirit, but next time, how about guiding them away from fire hydrants, up steps less than 20 cm and out of the way of oncoming traffic? One step at a time, chaps.

The wheels of steel

One of my unguilty pleasures in the last two months has been the move to cycling to work. My estimation that the DEM office was the same distance from my house as Dell was slightly off, and a 30 minute walk in the Taipei morning heat is not an awful lot of fun.

It didn't take too much persuasion from 'New Yorker in Taipei' Nick to persuade me to part with 3500 NT$ (about 60 quid) for a brand new fixed gear bike. Yes, it's a bit of a clunker and needs tightening weekly. Yes 60 quid means it must be very dodgy. But who cares? There is a certain nobility in riding a bike that costs about the same as my seat post on my mountain bike ... and if it's raining? I just leave it outside and don't worry about it too much.

The fixed gearing without freewheel means I don't need a brake on the back, and instead braking is now harder work than accelerating. Sounds stupid, eh, but it makes for a wonderfully involved ride, judging the traffic, maintaining momentum, staying smooth and in general staying out of trouble. Taipei is Taipei, so I did pussy out and stick a brake on the front - sorry Nick and the courier purists, but I don't want to die.

It's a trend from the streets of NY, London and Berlin that I am happy to import here, but I hope, or at least expect they will not be as popular as the folding bike craze sweeping the island at the moment.

It’s Bike Week in the UK and locally we had a little Bike Fest, well the local council did.  We ended up in the paper talking about how we use our bikes. You can read the whole article in this pdf. Also got another call from a different part of Transport for London - this time the [...]

This week in London we will see fuel protests over the current price, with protesters asking the government not to go ahead with a 2p tax increase on petrol later this year, which all seems a drop in the ocean when prices seem to go up by 2p every day. Sooner or later we will all [...]

The journalist that came to interview us last week sent us a few photos he took. Not sure when this will appear in the local newspaper as I just sent back the last change this morning, but may be sometime in April - I think he said he was commissioned to do a series [...]

It is odd how a decision to do something ripples out in time to other events.  When as a family we went to Move it in the Manor and ended up one the cover of Sutton Scene and in The Times. Today I’m being interviewed again for a newspaper about the Sutton Smarter Travel scheme.  From [...]

Some pics, for you, loyal reader...


Commuting to work - these guys looked super cool as they cruised around, and seemed confused as to why I would find it strange or funny - is this the future of electric transport?


Meiji Shrine - wetter than last time!


Cool trains


I love the Tokyo Taxis - Toyota Crown Victoria, lifted straight from a retro kung-fu movie, and sporting automatic doors in the rear!

Matthew Parris has come in for plenty of stick in his article, “What’s smug and deserves to be decapitated?“ ” A festive custom we could do worse than foster would be stringing piano wire across country lanes to decapitate cyclists.” Even in jest this is a little harsh considering how often this type of crime has been [...]