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Q: Any need for traffic police?
I'll keep this one short.
For the last two weeks now, there has been an increased number of traffic police on Wanjalia Rd, Changsha. On the days that they are not there, the traffic is moving at a nice and steady pace. But when they are on, and the lights are still working.... Well all mayhem seems to break lose. I have just spent nearly an hour on a bus ride that usually only takes twenty minutes. There were no signs of any accidents, and once we got past the TP, the way was clear.
Are they doing more harm than good?
10 years 46 weeks ago in Transport & Travel - China
THis happens in guilin and Beijing as well.
Never fails to amaze me....
any time and in any city you have a controlled intersection you will have traffic back log
the idea is to prevent accidents
and the round about thanks to you Pom's was suppose to reduce the need for
Traffic lights and help the traffic flow
instead nobody knows how to use them or in China which way to go round them
Traffic control in China is a contradiction in terms 
I once got invited to spend some time with traffic police in China. I had to show a traffic officer how to select reverse so he could get the car out of the parking space. That incident sums up the experience and knowledge of traffic cops in China perfectly for me.
philbravery:
My Brother in-law is a cop here and he has failed his license 3 times so far
maybe it is a good thing he does not drive 
As one of those laowai that's crazy enough to drive a car in China, I guess I will play devil's advocate on this one. I absolutely LOVE the days when the traffic police are on duty at the main intersections in my city. Usually see them during rush hour. The reason I LOVE them, is because they actually control the mob of pedestrians, bicycles, and e-bikes who would otherwise just be crossing the road with reckless abandon (red man, green man means nothing). Dodging the idiot drivers here is enough of a chore....adding the rest of the fray is just ludicrous 
it is a way to keep unemployment low. which feeds incompetence. in my city the traffic police do not try to work, they gather and talk. which is funny when there is an accident. they would either act like they don't see it or laugh about it. i have seen this 3 timees at one intersection
one time there was a serious accident and they did absolutely nothing for about 20 minutes. a traffic cop from the next intersection ended up coming to help while the 6 cops continued to just talk.
Scandinavian:
yup, children of partymembers gets an easy job where they just have to stand around doing nothing for some years and then get eternal salary until death.
