Bear with me, I’m devoting an entire post as an ode to the public transportation system in Taipei. I know it’s not fair to compare the 21 year old metro system here, the MRT, to the 92 year old one in New York City, but I can’t help myself.
Not only are the metro stations and cars here spotless, but they are air conditioned, play classical music to alert you of an approaching train, run on schedule with one train every 3-4 minutes, have priority queues for the elderly, handicapped and strollers, advertise funny public service announcements and have working elevators! You see what I mean?!? Also, no food or drink is allowed in the entire metro system, which means no delays or track fires due to degenerates tossing their trash onto the track. Why NYC has not implemented this rule boggles my mind, but you can be sure that my metro system renovation ideas will be unloaded onto the powers to be when I return!
Oh, and I can’t believe I didn’t mention the pricing system. Pricing is based on distance traveled with the minimum ride being 15NT (about $0.50USD). Oh, yes, that decimal point is in the right place.
For where we’re living this time in Taipei, we’re about a 12 minute walk (40 minutes when you factor in the heat index) to the nearest MRT station and three minutes to the closest bus station. I’ll take door number two, please. We have never traveled so much by bus before in Taipei, and it’s been fantastic. The only detail we had to work out initially was figuring out when to pay the fare; some buses upon boarding, others upon alighting. Much to Philip’s frustration, the drivers would allow Philip to pay upon boarding, but tell Jules and me that we didn’t have to pay until we got off. Apparently, there’s a sign above the driver’s head to tell you when to pay your fare, and since most Taiwanese don’t speak any English the drivers just couldn’t be bothered to explain the procedure to Philip. At least, that’s what I think.
The buses are cheaper than the MRT, and you can go a long distance for just 15NT. However, they are a slightly dicier option than the MRT, since the drivers are a bit heavy-footed on both the accelerator and brake, which means flying people every so often. You also have to make sure you stick your hand out to flag down your bus, or it’ll just pass you by. When there’s a queue of 3-4 buses in a row at a stop and your bus happens to be last, then the bus will just pick up a half block from where you are and you have to make a mad dash for it. I bet there’s a good Monty Python sketch for this: boarding a bus in Taipei as an Olympic sport.
Overall, though, I really can’t complain, since there are digital banners at most stops showing bus arrival times, no food or drink aboard buses and the wait is around 3-5 minutes. Plus, you get a really good sense of the city when you travel around by bus.
