Seven years ago, the first time I was in a car in Taiwan was a little scary. My friend driving the car made some moves that frightened me. First, she didn't stop at intersections, hardly even slowed down. I realized there wasn't even a stop sign. There are no stop signs. There is some triangle drawn on the street, but it's not very obvious and I don't think anyone knows what it means. She also cut people off several times, didn't signal before turning and was generally wreckless.
What surprised me more though, was that nobody got angry. There were no scowls, no middle fingers, and no shouting. They didn't even seem to notice that she was driving like a maniac.
After driving with several other people and taking taxis and buses, I found that almost everyone here drives like this. Why no road rage? Because crazy driving is what they expect. If you expect somebody is going to cut you off and you're ready for it, you're life is not in danger, so you won't be mad.
Recently however, I've seen a frightening trend. The news is reporting more and more incidents of road rage. The good news is that more and more people here are following the rules of the road and are expecting others to as well. But that's why road rage is so terrible in the States. Americans expect everyone to drive perfectly and when someone gets out of line, they have to pay. Any good citizen is responsible for punishing someone breaking the driving rules.
So as Taiwanese people become better drivers, there will be more and more cases of road rage, I assume. Taiwanese people love baseball too. You don't want to make a man carrying a baseball bat angry. At least it's not a gun.
Gotta take the good with the bad, I guess.
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