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Q: Why, when traffic lights are red here, is there still a lane where some cars can pass through?
I'm currently writing a blog about my traffic annoyances in China, but I wanted to highlight this point. I've been here for a few years now, but am completely bemused by the fact the authorities haven't noticed what a huge danger this is. Know what I'm talking about? Next time you cross the road and there's still cars passing through via side roads, you'll know. It means that there's never a completely safe time when pedestrians can cross, and just goes to highlight the lack of through that goes in road safety here. Not only is it dangerous for pedestrians, but also the constant criss-crossing of cars surely countless causes daily accidents. Is it the same in your city?
10 years 52 weeks ago in Health & Safety - China
Yeh, it's the same everywhere, the only saving grace is that the pace is generally pretty slow, but there must be a ton of accidents. I think one you need in your blog is the "i'm not looking" trick everyone plays. Pedestrians, car drivers, cyclists, motorcyclist, bus drivers, all pretending not to see each other. Everyone relies on their peripherals, it's the only way to get people to give way, make them think you haven't seen them. A friend pointed this out to me years ago and I didn't believe him, it sounded ridiculous, but it's absolutely true. No give way, no right of way, cyclist riding three abreast, pedestrians strolling down the middle of the road, no mirror/signal just maneuver, the list goes on and on. I remember when I was a motorcycle courier I had an idea to attach a camera to my crash helmet for a week and record the crazy life of a courier. Maybe i'll do the same here. News at Ten: man with camera attached to his head records own death. Witnesses to the accident recalled his last words as he disappeared under the wheel of the bus that he was refusing to give way to, to be, "You kiss every hair on my **** you crazy motherfu.........!!!"
Hulk:
I dunno. I've never seen traffic like this in my entire life back home. Visited over 300 cities in the U.S., and nobody ever drove like Chinese people... unless they were drunk.
ambivalentmace:
reminds me of the story from zhengzhou this week, man and woman with 6 year old child sitting in the middle in back seat of cab. dad is drunk and throws up out the window and a passing truck takes dads head off. the kid screams like a banshee a few minutes later and stop the taxi, and the police find the head 3 kilometers back down the road. the kid will probably never play a zombie computer game again.
I asked if they got road safety training in schools here.
Bemused looks from students and laughter from everyone else.
Star, you are missing one important point: 'In China, wealthy people (cars) stop only if the comet hits the area. Pedestrians (and other animals) always cross road, after the cars. Therefore, words 'safe' and 'dangerous' cannot be interpreted same as in the West.
I like to ask my students: 'Who goes first in the rainy weather? me in the car, or you, walking without umbrella?'
From their answers, car always have right way!
Remember way back when? Your mother told you to look both ways before you cross the street? Mom was right. In China, you best look every which way because, as mentioned before, cars feel like they have the right of way, and they're bigger than you.
More to the point: There is no "stop before you make a right turn on red" rule here. Weeeeeeee!!!! Also mentioned above, those flying right turners pretend they don't see you (ie: me) on your ebike so be ready to hit the brakes.
However, I'm not saying this is against foreigners. Auto drivers do this to everyone and anyone riding or otherwise guiding a conveyance smaller than the car they drive. E-bikes bully bicycles and pedestrians, bicycles bully pedestrians. It's fun to watch. Sometimes I sit outside RT Mart for half an hour and watch traffic. It's much better than Chinese TV.
My blog on this? I got a copy of the traffic laws used in our country from the internet. Just write some funny incidents showing that EVERY SINGLE traffic law is broken on a regular basis in China. There are 100 questions in the Chinese Licence application. Why do they bother? That's also another source of amusement. The irrelevance of some questions to safe driving....no wonder you have people driving like they do. They are worried about how to give CPR to a dying traffic accident victim rather than think about using indicators, lanes, obey signals and keep to the speed limit. Unlimited material!
They are really breaking the law when they do that, but the law on traffic issues isn't heavily enforced here. I think that is for the bikes and other small vehicles. I've seen that happen before. I was in a cab and in the morning time there was a big cleaning truck cleaning the road. For some reason the big truck wouldn't move so many people just took that side road or drove in the wrong direction to get around him.
