You see a lot more of the aborginal culture in the east than you do in the other parts of Taiwan, which are heavily influenced by the Han Chinese of mainland descent.
The title of this post was inspired by my friend's little daughter who uttered those priceless words before passing out after getting some medicine and a shot. I still love that story as I think of her eyes rolling into her head, asleep, after declaring herself royalty. That is how I am feeling today. Woozy!
A recent paper published by two researchers from Taiwan's National Cheng Kung University seeks to improve infrastructure planning around popular cycling routes in Taiwan. The researchers analyzed survey data that divided riders by frequency (ability) and evaluated their calculous in choosing routes.
One major problem with the cycling routes the government has plotted around Taiwan has been the manner in which the routes are designed and allocated. Taiwan's cycling routes are often designed without consulting the community the routes are supposed to serve, and often lack many of the features that cyclists look for when choosing routes. Routes are designed in a top-down manner in which the central and local government mandates a route and it is built (often with political considerations in mind).
Another problem is the complete disorganization of cycling advocacy in Taiwan. There are few, if any, organized cycling advocacy groups the government can turn to for advice. It is not surprising in light of Taiwan's recent political history that Taiwan's cyclists avoid joining cycling advocacy groups that could act as a political force or may cross existing lines of political affiliation.
Click on the title for the full paper or simply read the conclusion at the bottom:
Estimating recreational cyclists’
preference on bicycle route facility
Ching-Fu Chen ,National Cheng Kung University
Pei-Chun Chen ,National Cheng Kung University
"CONCLUSION
This paper analyses recreational cyclists’ preference for attributes of bicycle route
facility in Taiwan. The SP method was conducted in which recreational cyclists were
asked to state their choice from three unlabelled bicycle routes’ alternatives on the
basis of their attributes. Choice modeling was applied to the collected data and
recreational cyclists’ preferences for each attribute are estimated. This study used
MNL model which include facility attributes and ASC interaction with recreational
specialization dimensions; the model captures the systematic heterogeneity in
recreational cyclists’ preference. Subsequently, LCM is used to account for
heterogeneity in the preference of bicycle route and facility attributes.
Empirical MNL results indicate that recreational cyclists prefer bicycle routes with
attraction along the route, basic facilities including toilet and simple maintain
equipment, tourist information center, and bike path. In addition, recreational cyclists
who have frequent participation in cycling are more likely to prefer bike route. For the
frequent recreational cyclist, bike route can provide diverse experience. Recreational
cyclists who take long time in cycling are likely to prefer restaurant service, and low
cognitive level in recreational specialization cyclists are more likely to choice leisure
route.
Using LCM with segment membership functions for predicting segment
membership of recreational cyclists, it allows for explicit identification of recreational
specialization concept. Moreover, LCM also improves the model fit to the data, and
allows for testing the impact of recreational specialization variable on segment
membership. As a result, high recreational specialization cyclists are more likely than
low recreational specialization cyclists to choice challenge and endurance grading
route.
From a managerial perspective, bicycle route should be classified according to
different group of recreational cyclist, for instance, riding experience, distance, slope,
etc. In addition, base on safety conscious, roadway type is very important attribute to
consider bicycle route. Bicycle path is separate from general roadway that cyclists can
use exclusively route. It can improve safety considerations for barriers to bicycle use.
From a long term perspective, increasing the number of recreational cyclists would
contribute to efforts to increase the number of commuting cyclists."
Also:
The wife and I went for a little recovery ride up to Dakeng, at the base of the foothills in Taichung. The big tree round-about makes a nice little destination to meet other cyclists. 
