In the summer of 2002, I had the privilege of visiting Taiwan, by then a dynamic, modern industrialized country. Cars and trucks were in wide use, and there was frequent bus service in urban areas, but motor scooters were the most common motor vehicle.
Taiwan had banned the sale of new two-stroke motor scooters several years earlier. Only occasionally did I see one, identifiable by a plume of blue smoke and the distinctive buzz of the two-stroke engine. Still, air pollution was very serious in Taiwan — worse than I have experienced in any US city — thanks to the subtropical summer heat, to the populated areas’ being sheltered from the prevailing wind by high mountains, to the strong manufacturing/industrial economy, and to later and weaker pollution control measures than in the USA.
What measures are needed to accommodate light two-wheelers — motor scooters or bicycles — with a mode share well above 50 percent? Well, Taiwan was a real eye-opener in that regard. Measures focused on accommodating light two-wheeled vehicles with a 10% mode share would mostly just get in the way.
Riding a bicycle among the motor scooters in Taiwan was air-pollution Purgatory and vehicular-cycling Heaven, a sort of anti-Amsterdam. (If I go to Taiwan again, I’m taking my filter mask.) I fit in just fine on my bicycle, as did the few other bicyclists I saw — and I’m not a fast cyclist and neither were they.
All kinds of people were riding motor scooters, from the mid-teen years on up. It wasn’t the “eight to eighty” paradigm we hear in the USA — more like fourteen to eighty.
Traffic moved efficiently except where the wider motor vehicles created traffic jams. There, the motor scooters generally filtered past. Everyone was riding according to the standard rules of the road, except for the filtering forward. In the several days I was there, I did not see a single crash.
Helmet use was mandatory for motor scooter riders.
I think there are a few lessons in what I experienced:
- In hot climates, (think the U.S. sunbelt –), and especially with hills to climb, light motorized two-wheelers are going to very popular, bicycles less so if private passenger cars are too expensive to operate and/or road space is scarce. Though bicycles are certainly more convenient in many ways, and much less expensive, even in mild climates, many people will prefer light motorized two-wheelers due to issues of physical ability, steep terrain and time/distance.
- In the USA, two-stroke motor scooters are still on sale and probably predominate in the market. (Why? The two-stroke motor has a somewhat higher power-to-weight ratio and is simpler and cheaper.) The issue of air pollution from motor scooters needs to be addressed proactively, and early. If we don’t go one better than Taiwan and require effective pollution control on motor scooters as we do on passenger vehicles and light trucks, the problem is going to catch up with us and reverse the gains in air quality of the past 35 years. [Update 2019 — e-bikes may render this observation irrelevant.]
- I did see bike/motor scooter lanes on one main arterial in Taichung, Taiwan, but a society with a very large mode share for light two-wheelers needs to adopt a mostly vehicular paradigm, as Taiwan does. Any widespread attempt at segregation is too clumsy and inefficient. We do have a few examples in the USA where the same conclusion was reached — for example, see this video shot at the University of California at Davis, where bicyclists, service vehicles and shuttle buses share the campus roadways from which private motor vehicles are prohibited.
- The “eight-to-eighty” [updated to “all ages and abilities] mantra so often heard recently has a nice sound to it if you’re just promoting bicycle use or bicycle sales, but isn’t going to work under Taiwan-like conditions, because eight-year-olds are not capable yet of operating safely in heavy traffic. 14 to eighty is more sensible for travel on a motor scooter anywhere in an urban area. Younger folks can ride on local streets (and bicycle boulevards and paths may increase the scope of where they ride ) — but not everywhere.
- In a mature culture which makes widespread use of light two-wheelers, traffic law and helmet use are taken seriously in the interest of public safety and orderly operation, not dismissed as irrelevant due to “safety in numbers” or the goal of encouragement.
