China's chaotic crossroads make foreigners at loose ends
- Source: Global Times
- [22:07 August 08 2010]
- Comments
By Xu Ming
Crossroads are always a nightmare, especially at rush hours.
It's a scene repeated a thousand times a day in big cities like Beijing.
Before the lights change, people rush across the road. The leader is usually male, always firm and fearless, defying the still-lingering red light and hurrying across the road as if the devil was on his tail. Behind him the crowd follows, some hesitant, others encouraged by his reckless bravery.
Among the desperate flow of pedestrians are a few foreigners.
But their nimble weaving across the flow of traffic is just as skillful as the locals. Drivers stop for fear of running over one of these eager pedestrians, instead sitting there with their hands on the horn. The whole crossroads becomes a chaotic mess.
One American friend of mine was very cautious and patient in waiting for the green light when he first came to China.
Gradually, he realized people around him were smarter at finding chances to run red lights. He learned the technique quite well. When asked about the secret, he replied, "Just follow the crowd."
See, we are really influential, or infectious maybe. It is interesting that while foreigners might be assimilated in China, Chinese people behave quite well at following the traffic rules overseas. But as soon as they set foot on their homeland, they are brought totally back to old habits.
Some Hong Kong residents with two license plates are law-abiding drivers in Hong Kong, but recklessly zoom around over the border in Shenzhen.
Why does China spark this rash of road rage?
As far as I' m concerned, it is a matter of ignorance stemming from people's weak awareness of traffic laws and the tragic consequences of going through the red light. They may think it is no big deal as long as you time it well.
But laws exist for a reason. There are innumerable disasters caused by chaotic traffic - people knocked in the air, seriously injured or killed, motor-bikes smashed to pieces by cars running red lights, and hospitals crowded with people hurt in traffic accidents everyday.
The accident on Beijing's Qijiayuan Road this May was a typical crossroads tragedy, where a car waiting for the red light was crashed by another car rushing from behind. Three people from one family were severely injured in the smashed front car. Two of them died later.
Official figures released by the Ministry of Public Security suggest that over 67,000 people were killed in traffic accidents in 2009 in China, the highest in the world.
But we can't blame the drivers and pedestrians alone. Lawmakers have to shoulder some of the blame. At some crossroads, the time interval between red and green lights is not reasonably designed. In some locations, the red light lasts three times as long as the green. That's really a test of patience.
In addition, in China, there are vehicles exempt from the constraints of traffic law. These cars are from the army or the police or carrying important officials. Some of these cars rush on the road with arrogance endangering other drivers.
Everyone feels the urgency to press forward, to save time, to be more efficient, but sometimes at the risk of their or other people's lives.
But what we see at the crossroads is actually a microcosm of the Chinese society.
People become impatient and hate waiting. Everyone is complaining about the disorder, but everyone is responsible for it. If there is no order even on the road, you can imagine the difficulty in building an orderly society.
Sure, government agencies can do their part to improve the situation. But we cannot rely on them when it is everyone's business. We need to learn les-sons from tragic accidents to raise our awareness of the traffic laws.
I hope foreigners coming to China learn more than how to run a red light.
The author is a reporter with the Global Times. xuming@ globaltimes.com.cn
