Chaos in the Streets

One of the most vivid memories of our first trip to China (Beijing in 1996), was the traffic, which was characterized by the overwhelming number of bicycles "sharing" the road with the auto traffic. When we hit Guilin in 2000, add pedestrians and water buffalo to the mix, and a guide who claimed that when crossing a street, the trick is not to make eye contact with the operator of whatever vehicle is heading in your direction, since the larger (car) is responsible to watch out for the smaller (pedestrian). It seemed like the hierarchy was supposed to be person, water buffalo, bike, and motor vehicles. Supposed to be in theory, but not necessarily in practice.

As we hit Xi'an -- a mid-sized Chinese city of 7 million people -- this week, we noticed that there were definitely more cars than in the smaller Guilin of four years ago. Expected. What was not expected was that the chaos in the streets has not abated a bit since then. I thought roundabouts were dangerous in the UK or even at home. In a country where the "no eye contact" rule is apparently still in effect, why they bother painting lines on the road or installing stop lights anywhere but the largest cities eludes me.

At least there's one benefit of such chaos on the roads. While laws prohibiting cell phone use while driving are pretty well ignored at home in the US, there is little choice but to follow them in China, despite what seems to be near universal use of mobiles. To do so, and therefore divert your attention from the chaotic traffic, would be to invite disaster.

[Later...] I wrote too soon. Even in the largest city, Shanghai, the existing lights and lines are largely an illusion. Admittedly, in Shanghai, the traffic is a tad bit more controlled. It has to be, given the sheer numbers of people, bikes, motorcycles, busses, trucks and cars involved. In a city with 16 million overnight residents and a daytime population of almost 20 million, you would have to have a bit more control, if not self control. It would seem...

One example of an attempt at more control, at least in the area around our hotel, is a small army of traffic control people augmenting the police. Armed with piercing whistles, they add to the din at every major intersection in the neighborhood. (Another example of an employment opportunity?) Despite the best efforts of these folks, which seem to succeed most in keeping pedestrians on the sidewalks until the crossing light turns green, the apparently quite liberal "right-turn-on-red" rules still result in taxis barreling through the hundred+ people crossing at each opportunity.