Dangerous Shade

In Minnesota, when winter comes, everyones’ anxiety increases when faced with driving in the snow and ice. Taiwan is likewise, although I am positive there has never been snow or ice here, so it is not the frigid winter weather that brings the justified cautious driving, it is the nice sunny weather. I have become ever the more nervous when driving in the nice weather in Taiwan. I am not afraid that I might slip and fall from the ice, but rather because shade here is very dangerous in the summer. Shade has accounted for many of my near crashes. It is because most Taiwanese don’t want to have too much sun so they can stay whiter. So they eagerly find the shade before intersections. These shady places become very dangerous to approaching traffic! The shade often lies at great distances from the intersection, so it seems that no one should ever be stopping there making it so dangerous. The irony about it is that I am also eagerly finding the refreshing shade as I approach an intersection…but maybe not yet to the extreme that I might cause an accident.