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Posts: 446

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Q: Let's rate Chinese drivers on an international scale.

I have been all over the world.  This is how I rate Chinese drivers and various other drivers.  What are your thoughts?

 

1.  Worst drivers in the world :                 Chinese

2.  Second worst drivers in the world:    Italians

3.  Third worst drivers in the world:         French

4.   Fourth worst drivers in the world:      Belgians

 

1.  Most polite drivers in the world:                 Canadians

2.  Second most polite drivers in the world:  Japanese

3.  Third most polite drivers in the world:       the Ossies

4.  Fourth most polite drivers in the world:    the Swiss.

 

How about your list?

10 years 17 weeks ago in  General  - China

 
Answers (15)
Comments (23)
Posts: 561

Governor

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a blind, deaf, monkey that is addicted to crack can probably drive better.  note: I've never actually witnessed a blind, deaf monkey driving first hand, but i believe it is a fair and safe assumption to make..

Robk:

I drive my motorcycle around China and your assumption would be a fair one. But how did I make this comparison? 

 

I took a trip to Africa and found a small angry monkey. I threw acid in its eyes, fed it crack for a few days (until I was sure it was addicted) and then burst its ear drums with some loudly played Justin Bieber music. I then hi-jacked a jeep and evaluated its driving skills and I then I realized... I have issues. 

10 years 17 weeks ago
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Paulberger:

you do have issues... what's wrong with you... you could have ruined a perfectly good jeep... at least use a CRV or something else..

10 years 17 weeks ago
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joannaq2727:

Worst driving I have ever witnessed is here in China.

They do not drive very fast but they are reckless

I would never attempt to drive here

9 years 7 weeks ago
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10 years 17 weeks ago
 
Posts: 902

Shifu

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I think the Chinese are the worst and it stems from their attitude of me, me, me all the time combined with absolutely no awareness of either other people around them or how their actions impact on those other people. They are taught how to get a vehicle moving, not the same as being able to drive. As I sometimes say to my wife most of them should not be let out in charge of a bicycle let alone anything with an engine.

Robk:

If you watch Chinese while they are walking, they usually walk in zig-zags lol... not because of obstacles but... they just do... it's strange. 

 

I would say, learn to walk straight before even riding a bicycle. 

10 years 17 weeks ago
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diverdude1:

I said the same thing about zig-zagging long ago !  glad I wasn't the only one who noticed!   I said it like this- Chinars don't 'walk', they 'drift'.

10 years 17 weeks ago
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ambivalentmace:

yes, they drive like they walk,

it is a sad irony that the most crowded country in the world has people who act like they are the only one in the country,

i have tried to logically understand this from many points of view, psychology, culture, etc, but no logical conclusion has presented itself through the fog of chinese civilization or lack thereof, the anecdotal evidence has made me question my iq and my sanity.

10 years 15 weeks ago
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10 years 17 weeks ago
 
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the Italians might be bad drivers, but many of them stopped to let me cross the road when was there on a visit. 

belle_watson:

Did they stop to let you cross or were they those little macho types just googling at you?

10 years 17 weeks ago
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Scandinavian:

if you are indeed blonde, then that could be the reason rather than driving skills or common courtesy. 

10 years 15 weeks ago
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10 years 17 weeks ago
 
Posts: 1263

Shifu

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There is no awareness of anyone else. You look at a driver when they come to a junction the next time and see if they look left or right when they pull out. I bet they don't.

 

Just the worst drivers in the world.

Also the ubiquitous use of mobiles makes it even worse.

 

Myself and a friend agreed that Chinese people should be restricted to owning EITHER a phone OR something with wheels but not both.

diverdude1:

I've lived here a long time, too long to admit actually,,  up near as long as mr. martian...  I used to stand at a particular bus stop, near a pretty big intersection,,, no traffic lights.  I must have watched a 1000 vehicles cross/enter that intersection,,, I was close enuf to observe the driver.  i'd say 100% of the time, they NEVER looked to their left,, they just drove into the bigger road,,,  such a Strange approach to life~  unaware that a giant cement truck could be coming ?? or just don't care ??  Honestly, I still haven't figured it out...

10 years 17 weeks ago
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10 years 17 weeks ago
 
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I would rate Chinese drivers at the end of the scale , and not the good end My wife wants to get a learners permit but did not take enough ID to get it yesterday (thank God) all we need a Christmas is another Asian Woman behind the wheel adding to the carnageno

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10 years 17 weeks ago
 
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CHINESE DRIVERS MUST BE THE WORST IN THE WORLD!  

How could any other nation be worse?

But what is the main contributing factor?  Inability, or just not giving a damn?

 

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10 years 17 weeks ago
 
Posts: 915

Shifu

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I've seen worse in Cairo and Mumbai.

royceH:

Well, I've just gotta see that..........I'm goin!

10 years 17 weeks ago
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Red_Fox:

Wear a helmet. 

10 years 17 weeks ago
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10 years 17 weeks ago
 
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Those of you who rate the southern European drivers as poor drivers are dead wrong. Sure they make a lot of dents, but that is due to the parking culture where it is "accepted" to use the bumpers. 

When you see a French guy or an Italian behind the wheel, he or she is driving the car, commanding it where to go. When you see a Chinese driver he or she is sitting with the same expression as a deer has when it is standing on a dark road being struck by car headlights. The Chinese drivers are not drivers, they are just passengers with a round thing in front of them.

 

Can't wait for the driver-less cars. And most new cars in the higher end will automatically break if there is pedestrians or other vehicles in front of them. The technology involved is actually pretty cheap and will make it into lower end cars shortly. Of course it will take longer in China where you are lucky to get more than a couple of airbags, even in cars of foreign brand. 

 

Look at the number of road deaths in China per year. Pretty bad eh. Then factor in that car ownership percentage is much much lower than most western countries. Ooooh, now it looks even worse. Ok, then factor in that each car on average drives far less kilometers per year then those in western countries. 

 

I am sure Red is correct when he claims to have seen worse drivers. But in a modern society that want to be on par or better than the rest of the world. Chinese drivers are a joke' and a dangerous one at that. 

Red_Fox:

You are indeed correct in your estimation of a French or Italian driver. And I will include Spanish drivers in that group. They may drive at high speed through the city streets or along mountain cliff roads lining the Mediterranean, but they are in command of the machine. (The Italian word for car is "macchina".) There is a symbiosis between man and machine when a southern European is behind the wheel.

In a country like Egypt, India or China, there is no such relationship.

 

10 years 17 weeks ago
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belle_watson:

Piloti italiani sono fortemente insidiosi. 

 

 

10 years 17 weeks ago
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Scandinavian:

@Fox. Actually I was surprised the first time I drove down through Europe. From Scandinavia to Germany, France, Italy, France (again) Spain, Portugal. In Spain they actually drive very much according to rules, and the predictability of the events in traffic is high. But yeah, the Spanish people do have the southern European blood so maybe a little more "crazy" (meant in the best way)

10 years 17 weeks ago
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andy74rc:

I'm Italian, albeit from the north side, so a bit more prone to follow rules.

Agree with Scando 100%. We drive, we feel it and we enjoy it.

Chinese drivers are all about misconceptions, ignorance, selfishness, unawareness.

In several occasions I tried to explain to some friends and colleagues that when you drive (or ride) you should learn to feel the car (or the bike) behavior, the level of grip of your tires, and that a sensible part of these information actually come from your butt (don't laugh, ask any professional driver/rider). Everybody was looking at me like a deer in....... etc etc.

Not even trying to understand what I wa saying. And they all see me driving (3 times faster than the average and always in full control...).

Lost battle.

 

10 years 17 weeks ago
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Scandinavian:

I guess the concept of "roadtrip" in China means trying to cross the road frogger style. 

 

Everyone should at least once try a good decent car vacation. Drive from coast to coast in the US, Drive from the arctic circle to Gibraltar or Harbin to Sanya. 

 

Fly to Germany and rent a nice car and cruise from Hamburg to Frankfurt at 180km/t on a lazy Wednesday afternoon when you don't piss off to many locals.

 

In China the cars are just status. Their practical use is limited to sitting in a queue and honking the horn. 

10 years 17 weeks ago
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nicholasba:

agreed with you.

Back in the days I use to drive in italy small alley at around 70km/h, almost drunk and never got a car incident. Makes me wonder sometimes wonder why im here...

10 years 15 weeks ago
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10 years 17 weeks ago
 
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Have you guys been to India? or watched the Top Gear episode where they drive there?

 

I have driven in the UK for 3 years, i'm British. I have so far driven my ebike in China for a year. Chinese drivers are bad, but from what I saw on Top Gear, Indians drive much worse.

 

Maybe 1 out of 5 drivers do let me have right of way. Most aren't stupid enough to just suddenly drive out in front of me when i'm coming at 30km/h.

Scandinavian:

India has never claimed to be a world super power. There is that difference. India is a great country with lots of potential that is slowly being released. India has a focus on road safety far more than China. 

 

Note: Top Gear of course never over dramatizes what they do. 

10 years 17 weeks ago
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10 years 17 weeks ago
 
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Chinese are indeed the worst. I have driven in about 15 different countries including ethiopia. DO NOT DRIVE in lowertier cities. wuhan and chongqing were particularly bad. Guangdong and shanghai are much better. Its the impatience that makes them dangerous. They can wait even a second so there is no right if way. The far right lane is a no drive area as people turing onto your road will not wait.EVER. 4 cars make it throuh a green liht because two lanes turn into 6. This post makes me angry hahaha

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10 years 15 weeks ago
 
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It's like the rest : not that they couldn't drive well, but they just don"t give a s**t because it needs an effort and some degree of paying attention to others.

Which is something they can't do for free.

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10 years 15 weeks ago
 
Posts: 402

Shifu

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Perhaps the Chinese are not the worst drivers, but seem to be because of their indifference to other people or the traffic laws. They all display the 'I, myself and me only' as most of the rest of the population. Traffic laws are only a suggestion to them to be freely interpreted by each individual driver.

Example: one day, riding in a car driven by my friend., we came to a red traffic light.

She drove right through the intersection, commenting to me 'there is no other car, so

it is okay;'.

Scandinavian:

No, they are the worst drivers. Go look at a parking lot, how much time it takes to maneuver a vehicle where people who know where the 4 corners of their car is would just do it. 

I can look down at one of the entrance ways to the parking lot under the building I live in. There is often honking despite the no honking signs (lack of respect for rules and people) when two cars needs to pass, but in 9 out of 10 times there is plenty of space around the vehicles for them to move where they need to go (drivers has no skills)

And a couple of other interesting observations. Those in my community who are so unfortunate as to not have a designated parking spot park outside, the roads are a width where you can have 3 normal sized cars side by side. Yet those who park outside insist on having on set of wheels on the sidewalk. In the last month I've twice seen someone simply failing in gently climbing the sidewalk and as a result smacking their car into a concrete wall. One was this morning, a Camry, a couple of weeks ago a Mercedes SLK.

There is also a neighbor who recently got a spanking new car, nice Volkswagen, the first couple of weeks it was parked in one spot, no license plates, the car wasn't moved at all. Then it got license plates, started being parked in different places in the same area, after a week, front bumper smashed, probably failed to keep safe distance and bumped into another motorist. Living the Chinese dream.

10 years 15 weeks ago
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10 years 15 weeks ago
 
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watching the chaos in china sometimes is better than a movie, the cars are about 80 per 1000 people here and 800 per thousand in america, the accident rate here is twice america with half the cars and less km's driven. add 20 million cars a year to this equation and its gonna be hard for the chinese to get police cars to protests, soon the chaos will result in protest stopping helicopters because cars will lock down any mobility.

get yourself a front row seat and enjoy the show. i can fly a helicopter but flying one with pollution fog and 30 meter visibility is going to be an ass puckering experience

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10 years 15 weeks ago
 
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I have been in China for almost 5 years and I have driven here many times. I have been driving a car for more than 45 years and I have hasd only one accident (at 18 and I was drunk. Since that accident I have never driven a car after drinking). I imagine that when people first started driving in America and Europe, drivers were very much like the Chinese drivers today. I think too the rule of law in the west has more of a bearing on the way people generally behave in a car compared to here. I have taken many defensive driving courses over the years and one of the things emphasized is courtesy. This idea is not even mentioned in a Chinese driving school. All they teach are the mechanics of driving, but most drivers are so poorly skilled that they do not seem to be able to do more than one thing at time; like not being able to turn on the directional signal and turn the steering wheel at the same time or in sequence

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10 years 15 weeks ago
 
Posts: 887

Shifu

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I get road rage every day here LOL...All the friggin' high beams man...if they even remember to turn their lights on hahah. The other day there was someone behind me with highs on again...I was having a bad one...At the red light I got out went to their car (it was a woman), she opened the window, I put my hand inside and turned em off...you should've seen the look on her face! 

Scandinavian:

this is where it would be great to speak fluent Chinese and say "I've forgotten my baseball bat so I have to just turn them off instead of smashing them"

10 years 15 weeks ago
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manasyt:

Haha she actually started messing with em again and turned em off completely...LOL.

A baseball bat is a good idea...or a cannon and a flamethrower ahaha 

10 years 15 weeks ago
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Nessquick:

Be strong bro :D

And enjoy it

10 years 13 weeks ago
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manasyt:

Hahah thanx, getting the hang of it now LOL! 

10 years 13 weeks ago
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10 years 15 weeks ago
 
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