I read this awesome article on driving in Taiwan , apparently written by an American living in Taiwan. Lots of pictures, and very descriptive.
I suppose any foreigners coming to the Philippines would say that the situation in Metro Manila is pretty much the same as the one outlined in the article, but after I read it I can’t help but feel that it’s just a little bit worse over there. But then again, I don’t actually drive here anyway – I just take public transportation and doze off or something. I suppose the situation is better here because we don’t have a prevalence of undisciplined scooters as mentioned in the article. For this and various other reasons, I have long ago decided never to buy a car for driving in the Philippines. In the best case scenario, I will have someone driving me around. But I never want to undertake the stress of driving myself.
I wonder if the situation is generally the same throughougt Southeast Asia? I suppose an even better question would be what would such a situation indicate about the culture of a country? Do we Asians have more inherently chaotic cultures than Westerners?
See Also