There’s a lot of old people here on scooters and many of
them are towing a hand truck as a trailer.
They use this method mostly to haul recyclables to the recycling center. I just have this feeling that if we were all
on the scooter that I would be tied to the hand truck. Look, I know how these things work.
Our car is a Toyota Sienta.
These aren’t available in the States.
It’s a small car, that usually seats seven people. The back doors are sliders like a mini van,
but this car is more like a micro-mini van. It’s pretty underpowered, in my
opinion; an 1800 cc engine. It doesn’t
go super-fast either, but it does have the advantage of being underpriced, so
there is that! It’s not like I want to
go all that fast, anyway. It’s just
basic transportation for when it’s raining, which is fairly often! After all we’re
about seven miles from a rain forest, sort of!
Of course, I have my mobility scooter, that I use for
birding and general tooling around. It’s
a pretty nice little rig. It’s powered
by a twenty-four-volt electrical system.
It’s also street legal; mirrors, turn signals, brake lights, hazard
flashers. It has hand throttles, the
right-hand lever makes it go forward, and the left hand one goes backward. The speed is regulated by a potentiometer; it
has a turtle to depict slow and a rabbit for fast. I almost always travel at full bunny; about
twelve km/h (approximately 7.5 mph). I
told you I wasn’t really into blazing speed.
Actually, though, that’s pretty fast.
The other day I almost passed an old woman with a walker…almost. Who knew she could run like that!
The other day, we bought Brenda a brand-new motor
scooter. It’s called the Aeon Gather Steady Hauler. She wanted a three-wheeled scooter, because
she wanted the stability provided by those extra wheels. When we first moved to Taiwan in 2009, I
bought a scooter and had it modified. I
had two outriggers attached to the back, so I could have the stability. We both rode it, so we’re comfortable with
those extra wheels. I used to tease
Brenda by calling the scooter my new pickup truck, because of the amount of
stuff she would haul around. This is another reason for the Steady Hauler. It’s three- wheeled with the technology to
lean over, like a two-wheeled scooter. Behind
the seat is a flat, cargo space. You can
attach a crate to it so you can put stuff in it. And it has a place for a basket as well.
It's basically, a 125cc motorcycle. It can travel at
seventy-five km/h (45 mph). The speed limit
for most roads that are not freeways is fifty km/h (31 mph), so it’s fast
enough. It even has a foot brake for the
rear brake, which is really cool. That’s
another mod from the original scooter. She
was worried about the hand brakes, this makes her much more comfortable!
今天我想分享一下我們在台灣的交通方式。當然，我們有一輛車，因為我們有時需要去一些很遠的地方，而我可不想長時間掛在機車後面，況且我們通常是三個人一起出門：我太太、我的看護和我。
這裡有很多老人家騎機車，很多人還拖著一台手推車當作拖車。他們大多是用這種方式把回收物載到回收中心。我總覺得如果我們三個都坐在一台機車上的話，我就會被綁在那台手推車上。你知道的，我很清楚這種事會怎麼發展。
天氣變好了，誰還想坐車呢？當然是想在戶外感受風吹在臉上的感覺。而且在市區裡騎機車更方便，好停車，還比較酷。
我們的車是
Toyota Sienta，這種車在美國沒有。這是一款小車，通常可以坐七個人。它的後門是滑門，就像小型麵包車，不過這台更像是超迷你麵包車。依我看，它的馬力很小，只有1800cc。速度也不快，不過價格便宜，這也算是一個優點吧！反正我也不追求什麼高速。這就是在下雨的時候用的基本交通工具，而這裡下雨還挺常見的！畢竟我們離熱帶雨林大概只有七英里，差不多吧！
當然，我也有一台代步電動車，我用來賞鳥和到處跑跑。這是一台挺不錯的小車，使用24伏的電力系統。它也可以在路上行駛，有後視鏡、方向燈、煞車燈、警示燈。操控是用手把油門，右手控制前進，左手控制後退。速度由電位器調整，有烏龜表示慢，有兔子表示快。我幾乎都是用全兔速，大約每小時12公里（約7.5英里）。我不是那種追求高速的人。不過老實說，這其實已經算快了。前幾天我差點超過一位推助行器的老太太……差點啦。誰知道她跑得那麼快！
前幾天，我們幫
Brenda 買了一台全新的機車。它叫做
Aeon Gather Steady Hauler。她想要一台三輪機車，因為那樣比較穩。我們2009年剛搬來台灣的時候，我買了一台機車並加裝了兩個側輪來增加穩定性。我們兩個一起騎，所以對這種加裝輪子也很熟悉。我以前常開玩笑說那台是我的小貨車，因為她總是載很多東西。這也是她現在選
Steady Hauler 的原因之一。這台三輪車有可以像雙輪機車一樣傾斜的技術。座位後面是平坦的載貨區，可以裝一個箱子，也可以加裝籃子放東西。
基本上，它是一台125cc的摩托車，最高時速可達75公里（約45英里）。台灣大部分不是高速公路的道路速限是50公里（約31英里），所以速度已經夠了。它甚至還有後輪腳煞，真的很酷！這是從以前那台機車改良來的功能之一。她以前不太放心用手煞，這個設計讓她騎起來安心多了！
Never mind my hair, here. It was windy, okay? Besides, when you're going that fast it gets messed up.
別在意我的頭髮啦，今天風很大好嗎？而且，騎那麼快，頭髮當然會亂啊。
Also, the cartoon is by ChatGPT. For some reason it couldn't grasp the concept of a hand truck trailer. Artificial semi-intelligence!
還有，這張卡通圖是由 ChatGPT 畫的。不知道為什麼，它就是無法理解手推車拖車這個概念。人工半智能啊！
Photos by Crisel Joy Bringula.
