How people carry dogs on their bicycles in Taiwan
For some reason pets in Taiwan cannot be left at home. If you’re going up the street it’s perfectly normal to let your dog hop up onto the limited floor space and come along for the ride.
Even if it’s a giant Golden Retriever or Labrador. Just make sure you stick your foot out so the dog can rest it’s tail on it and avoid contact with the road (yes I’ve seen people doing this).
If your dog is small enough, it’s also perfectly normal for your girlfriend or wife to hold it whilst balancing on the back of your scooter. Also, in the case of you owning an extremely talented dog you can also get them to perch up on the backseat and balance precariously for the duration of your trip; but I’ve only seen one such dog pull off this feat.
God knows how many years of practice that took.
When it comes to bicycles thankfully most people are restricted in carrying their pets around. Most dogs are too restless to be content riding in a pannier bag and for the most part people are restricted to dog baskets (I haven’t seen a dog trailer out here yet).
Of course as with carrying dogs on scooters, bicycle riders also have a cross section of hardcore pet owners who refuse to follow convention.
I ran into this dog (who looks happy enough) and his owner on a bicycle trail a few months back.
What you’re looking at their is a dog sitting on presumably a child’s seat in the middle of a two seater tandem bicycle. The dog does have a harness on but it’s for a leash and has nothing to do with the dog’s safety.
Despite looking awkward the dog happily perched up there sitting like that whilst the owners puttered along.
I’ve got no idea what the tolerance level for a dog is riding along on a bicycle like that or what effect it has on the handling but kudos to the owners for being persistent.
Personally, I’d just leave the dog at home…
August 8th, 2010 at 8:57 pm PeterF57(Quote)
Only one dog. That’s nothing OzBoy, I’ve seen for myself in Asian countries 6 people on a bike, and in an email I just received there were 9 on it, a baby carried like a papoose on the back, and another on the lights and another being held out from the other bodies to avoid being squashed.
Actually I’ve just re-checked the photo and the baby is being toted in what looks like a large ice cream bucket.
August 9th, 2010 at 4:45 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
lol I’m gunna call Photoshop shenadigans on that baby bucket. The baby is firstly too big and the skin tone is too bright. Not sure if that means the rest of the photo is doctored though.
I wonder how the driver stops. With that many people they’d all have to put their feet down to balance lol.