Three years of scooting around
It’s been a ride…
After gaining my Taiwanese motorbike license on my second attempt, I bought my first scooter three years ago today and haven’t looked back.
This means I’ve now owned a scooter longer than three of the five cars I ever owned in New Zealand. That would’ve surprised the old me.
Before coming here, I was never a motorbike person. I assumed I’d eventually buy a scooter because that’s what people do—after all, Taiwan has the highest rate of scooter ownership in the world—but I didn’t have especially positive or negative feelings about the idea.
But actually, as I discovered, I love the scooter life.
Daily benefits include:
- Convenience (scooters are often faster than cars in the city, and parking is a thousand times easier)
- Saving money (in New Zealand, I spent around NT$2,500 (NZ$125) a week on gas; now I spend more like NT$80 (NZ$4))
- Fun
- More fun
- Still more fun
Scooters are also cheaper, easier, and faster to maintain (and clean!).
When driving my Subaru in New Zealand (in which I averaged 30,000 km a year), I felt comfortable and safe. It allowed me to access remote areas for landscape photography—my main hobby—relatively easily, without getting stuck in snow or mud. But driving an SUV didn’t make me feel alive: that feeling came from the people I was with and the places we were going.
Here in Taiwan, driving itself is life-affirming. (Assuming all goes well, given Taiwan has 5× the population of New Zealand but 10× the number of traffic fatalities…)
On this point, in addition to the risk of death, scooters are admittedly—just sometimes—very slightly inconvenient. For example, when taking inter-city trips, you can’t use freeways. This means you’re limited to 70 km/h, and have to put up with a lot of traffic lights.
And rain is a challenge. I slow to under 35 km/h when the road’s wet, and I feel stressed when there’s surface flooding.
The first time I got caught in a downpour was immediately after receiving this alert on my watch:
…And I arrived home very wet:
But injury, death, and rain are really the only issues. Scooter ownership and scooter riding is otherwise a blast.
In reflecting on my three years of scooting around Taiwan, I've put together a list of my scooter-themed blog posts, with a bonus video at the end.
Enjoy! 🛵💨
2023
Getting my license, getting a scooter, and getting out to explore:
Want a scooter license in Taiwan? The first step is a trip to hospital…
Passed the medical exam? Three more tests and a two-hour safety video await you…
So I got my Taiwanese scooter driver’s license…
How to buy a new scooter in Taiwan…
20 must-have accessories for your scooter in Taiwan…
Something unexpected on my way home from the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas…
Video of a lunchtime ride across town…
Lizards, giant worms, hot air balloons, and paddy fields…
My first trip to some of Taiwan’s offshore islands…
2024
A solo circumnavigation of Taiwan, and a collision with grandpa:
Evading the fuzz from Kaohsiung to Kenting…
A slow, wet journey from Kenting to Taitung…
Elections and erections between Taitung and Hualien…
All things spectacular from Hualien to Yilan…
Yilan to Keelung, the north-east corner of Taiwan…
An alien village, a queen, and a lighthouse, between Keelung and Taipei…
From Taipei to Hsinchu, the semiconductor capital of Taiwan…
An easy ride from Hsinchu to Taichung…
From Taichung to Chiayi, buildings old and new…
Getting salty between Chiayi and Tainan…
Completing my circumnavigation of Taiwan by scooter, with a short ride from Tainan to Kaohsiung…
Three months ago, I returned from my solo circumnavigation of Taiwan by scooter. Here are my thoughts…
My first (extremely minor) scooter accident in Taiwan…
2025
A free meal, a parking lot, and a trip to the mountains:
An unexpected bonus while filing a report…
Video of an underground scooter parking lot in Kaohsiung, Taiwan…
Photos of an indigenous township in the Pingtung mountains…
Bonus video
Dashcam footage of a summertime scooter ride across Kaohsiung (west to east and return), June 2025: