In the past two weeks, I’ve witnessed an unusually high number of scooter accidents. On the way to school the taxi driver nearly ran into a scooter that cut him off, coming out of his blind spot. I’ve seen more than a few accidents involving scooters on the side of the road from the window of my taxi on the way to school. Just the other day I was riding a taxi on the way to a department store when again, a scooter driver cut in front of the taxi; this time the taxi hit her and she was thrown from her scooter. Fortunately, we were going very slowly and the taxi had only lightly tapped the scooter and the scooter driver immediately got up, apparently uninjured. A bystander ran into the street and started cursing out the taxi driver, even though it was clearly not his fault. Scooter drivers regularly drive recklessly, expecting other motorists to yield to them and to have their eyes open in all directions. And just as in past semesters I’ve already had students absent from class due to being involved in traffic accidents. It still appalls me the frequency with which people get injured riding around on scooters. Practically every foreigner I know who rides a scooter or motorcycle in Taiwan has been in at least one accident. Is this any way to live?!