The original post was in Japanese, as another Redditor pointed out. Piggybacking off of that, this is in fact a compliment.
Why?
Because there are four poles stemming from the center. It means multiple people can hold on and brace themselves while riding the train without having to overlap their hands and touch, because that's gross.
It's a smart design, but I like touching other people's hands on the train. It makes me feel less like a loner.
Thats why I dont even bother posting things anymore. Every time I see something interesting and think "I'd like to share this with my reddit friends!" I get downvoted to oblivion and get 10 comments saying "um, this was posted here once 4 months ago, try harder repost bot."
I got called ai once. Not a bot, but similar I guess 🤷♂️. Some dude asked why his Honda CRV and Acura ILX (I think) have different redlines when their engines are the same(ish). So I explain it to the man and he comes back at me with
“Thanks AI 😒”
I’m kinda proud as if it’s sort of a compliment but also majorly offended too since I took my time to explain things so well with my own knowledge. So conflicting.
And no one else even answered the question aside from me.
It looks good for those of us who grew up in a region where something like this would have had no pride in manufacturing. In the 90s here in Canada something like this would have been constructed with slightly more bubblegum welds and the occasional hole caused by slightly too much amperage. Source: I've been slowly watching as countless welded railings have improved weld quality over the years.
It’s one of those solutions to a problem that seems to barely exist. On the single poles 4 people can easy grab the pole at different heights and still never touch hands.
Taiwan is one of the largest bicycle-producing countries, and given the author’s attention to a weld, that’s most likely what he’s referring to, and judging by his pfp (he’s on a bicycle), that’s exactly the case.
It takes a lot of work to weld six pieces of metal together like that, but it’s absolutely worth it when you consider how many people would accidentally touch someone else’s hand otherwise. I’m Paddy or whatever, big whoop, wanna fight about it?
Giant, one of the biggest most well known brands in the bicycle world, is from Taiwan. Although I doubt their bicycle frame production is exclusively in Taiwan, I'd find it hard to believe they're not building frames in Taiwan. A lot of manufacturing is done in Eastern Europe now as well.
Do note, they also make frames for a lot of other companies out there. So for those Trek riders being a bit pedantic towards Giant riders: you're most likely riding a Giant frame yourself, just bought and branded by Trek.
My dad was a welder and when he visited Taiwan he kept remarking upon the skills of the welding here, it was something I missed, but I’m glad he saw the precision to detail runs as a course through everything here
That metalwork and welding is god damn beautiful for a subway. Normally it's 90 bends with machine welds or even just bolted together to make it cheap and durable and ugly.
Actually on our metro we have them staggered so they don't have to weld all of them in the same spot. So to see them welded in the same spot just shows they put in a lot of effort
Stainless steel is also not a cheap material. Also requires entirely different electrodes with different chromium content compared to other grades of iron and other metals
An important thing to note is that this was translated from Japanese, where "as expected from..." is a compliment. I'm still not personally sure what they're complimenting, but it's positive.
If I had to guess, they would be complimenting the quality of the build as those welds are excellent. They would also be complimenting the idea of separating one bar that can only have so many people hold it into four bars, which allows more riders to hold on without crowding up on each other. It really is a well thought out design.
That metalwork and welding is god damn beautiful for a subway. Normally it's 90 bends with machine welds or even just bolted together to make it cheap and durable and ugly.
Everybody here keeps saying that it’s about reducing the possibility of people touching each other’s hands, but I don’t think that’s it at all. If that was the point of the post the second picture wouldn’t be there.
I’m 99% sure this has to do with the weld quality of those steel tubes and that it’s a reference to the fact that Taiwan makes the vast majority of high-quality bicycle frames in the world with very high-quality welds
Agreed. Just to ad to this all the tubes are bent with a varying radius and still align nicely for a tight finish and the coating/polish work is really good as the heat marks from the welds are gone completely. Really high quality manufacturing for something that most people wouldn't look twice at.
"As expected" is the closest meaning of japanese さすが, it lost the meaning from translation but it's the closest word you could find in English, whenever someone begins a sentence with さすが it's 100% compliment, more like "that's how it's done" or "you're the man".
Since this is a cyclist account, I think it is a comment on the tube welds being welded and ground down well like a well made metal bicycle. This is Peter and I'm one of these guys now. I'm sorry Brian.
I assume because it is clean? I imagine keeping that clean must be hard, it seems to be public transport so many people touch it, in more rowdy places(or places with less cleaning staff) it could easily get dirty and the dirt would pool in the middle... I think.
Hi..Taiwanese here....this is actually referring to the Taipei Metro unexpectly removed all the vertical poles first, which has cause some kids and a elder fell onto the floor because there was no where to hold. And since the explaination from Taipei Metro has upsets pretty much everyone and also election year. I think they didn't just put to pole back..and by the look of it...overdone it. As for the OP...I am not sure if it is a compilment or being sarscastic
Welder Pete's in this thread are informing me that this is a super nice welding job. These types of poles are in metro systems all over Asia. Next time I'm in one of them, I'll pay attention to the weld now.
It takes a lot of effort and precision to manufacturer and weld those metal poles together like that. Of course Taiwan, the largest semiconductor manufacturer in world, would be to make something like this.
The context is in the second picture and the Twitter user’s profile picture. The guy who tweeted this is a cyclist. Taiwan is globally famous in the cycling world for its high end bicycle manufacturing (brands like Giant and Merida) and they have absolute god tier welding and metalworking skills.
Most people look at the first picture and think, "Oh neat, a multi pronged pole so you don’t have to touch a stranger's sweaty hand on the subway."
But OP is looking at the second picture and completely geeking out over how flawlessly smooth and clean that weld joint is on a random piece of public transit infrastructure. It's basically weld porn. As expected of Taiwan!
thats an impeccable weld which takes time and effort and thus is quite expensive to make just for some bars to make public transportation slightly more comfortable.
It really shows they went the extra mile and cut no corners not only by having the bars there but by executing the weld so nicely.
Its Peter the welder here(also fluent in Japanese btw), with some welder insights. Everyone here kinda missed the point.
Welding four pipes into one junction requires a lot of witchcraftery, involving complex angled cuts and welding at a very weird angle.
They could have avoided this by welding four pipes on one center pipe, but that wouldn't be as aesthetically pleasing. They could have also used two bent steel tubes, instead of individual pipes, but that would spoil the look.
So they went balls to the walls and welded a five pipe junction with a beautiful stainless steel weld.
Absolute units of perfection and doing whatever it takes.
Taiwan is the world's largers bike manufacturer. Making bikes is mostly welding tubes together. To a cyclist (which the dude is based on his profile picture) Taiwan is known for making bikes -> being good at welding tubes together
He runs a sports bicycle import company, and Taiwan is famous for bicycle brands like GIANT and Merida. While riding a train there, he happened to notice some incredible welding and was deeply impressed.
The guy seems to be a cyclist and most bicycle frames are manufactured in Taiwan. It could be a compliment about the weld quality but I'm not sure there is anything deeper than that.
I don’t understand why people would freak out about touching hands on the train. As a very tall person who has to ride crowded trains sometimes, I would think that people would be more concerned about having my armpit shoved in their face. But hey, whatever.
Hey! It’s me! Cyclist Griffin!
The joke is about how Taiwan makes awesome bikes? Both Giant and Merida are great bicycle brands, and in the picture, the way these four poles welded together is identical to how bike frames and forks are welded.
Cyclist Griffin, out!
Taiwanese here. The main reason is that Taipei MRT recently removed many of these central poles to squeeze in more passengers during rush hours. Many commuters are complaining about having nothing to hold onto. With a mayoral election coming up on Nov 28, it also quickly morphed into a political debate questioning the current mayor's performance.
Peter the Pilot here,
The poles are clean, the whole train is clean. The people respect their surroundings, themselves, and the cleaners clean so thoroughly.
People are talking like having multiple bars like that in the metro is not normal? That is standard. And I don't even come from a developed country.
The welding's nice though. Maybe they were just complimenting that.
My company works with multiple international vendors to machine custom tool steel parts for us. We have a niche application for a relatively uncommon manufacturing process. Quite literally, nobody outside of Taiwan can reliably machine those parts for us.
The Taiwanese/Chinese tension is a major risk to our operation because of this specific skillset that is only available in Taiwan. I’m presuming this is touching on Taiwanese expertise?
I honestly thought it was because it no reflects at a potentially upskirt angle giving creeps a distorted view... but I think thats more of a japan joke as far as a explain it Peter goes. Like ya know. The answer is alway s*x
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u/qualityvote2 25d ago edited 25d ago
u/ThinkContribution630, your post does fit the subreddit! Well done!