Prep Round-China Bike trip, 2-up, April-May 2012

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Originally Posted by Fred

Thanks Pete !

Most Chinese unfortunately do not say anything to those drivers and just keep being bullied, while bending their spine.

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I believe this is all related to the all-important 'Chinese face' --> ':icon10:'. Wouldn't you agree? Of course, but probably not with implementing ':icon10:' into your life! Life is more important and we're gonna shout about it! :gerg:...or sing about it :kumbaya: ...which I'm sure will make us all more popular than a bunch of angry, shouting foreigners but we don't get the chance to prepare a song while we're being pushed off the road by the asssh*les (or plain, ignorant idiots) out there who shouldn't be driving in the first place.

Before I agree with you, Fred, I just want to get a few things off my chest (that I experienced this morning on my 180km ride back from Mengyin). This isn't the first time I've seen this kind of thing but, for now, these ones are fresh memories:

- An E-bike riding, middle aged woman (baby girl riding pillion) plowing straight across a duel-carriageway and into my 80kph path without looking:
I was going slowly enough to stop (I learn from my mistakes), but it just sickens me how so many middle aged men and women can be so careless with their lives. How did they make it that far in the first place? They'd do well to set good examples to the younglings of today's China but instead they just drag them into the path of random speeding vehicles.

- A selection of cars that want to play chicken with me... which, if you count injuries, would me I'd loose every time:
Some will gradually overtake, only consuming about 50% of my side of the road and I still have the hard-shoulder; these one's don't bother me any more. The ones that try overtaking around blind corners are the ones that piss me off the most.

- Another E-bike riding, suicidal middle aged woman looking to take child with her to the Chinese afterlife:
This time she saw me as she was half-way across the duel-carriageway and stopped, leaving me just enough room to get by in-front of her. I, however. stopped right in-front of her and waved her on in a polite but very eccentric way (I was very angry and my sense of humour pops-in to prevent me from shouting). She smiled as hard as she could (barely masking her fear) and went on her way.

Now that's out of the way: Fred, thank you for your kind words, advice and wisdom. I don't think I've seen as much as you but rest assured that I've seen enough. I won't be riding crazily down the roads to Shanghai. Most importantly, I always take it easy down roads that I don't know.

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Originally Posted by Fred

So please Pete, if you want to come to Shanghai, look where you want to go AND anticipate where everybody else want to go, because they would not look for you...

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Don't worry man, I'm a fighter pilot, expecting everything to come at me from all angles :weary:.

I've been riding in the Sanghai streets for a couple of weeks now. Always the same route home-work-home. I haven't tried much else, I feel naked without my GPS. At any rate, an expat friend asked me today (after of course the inevitable "are you insane??") if I have had a "close call" yet.
Everyday, many times a day, I answered.
He had nothing to say back...

I read somewhere on this Forum (can't remember who or what thread) that one should stop expecting other drivers/riders/pedestrians to act rationally and start considering them as mindless drones or cows in a herd, or some words to that effect. The point being that, if you do not expect them to behave rationally, then you will not be surprised by their behaviour. This is supposed to help you 1) expect the unexpectable and 2) not get angry at these poor drones.
I have to admit after my first few days on 2 wheels on the road: truer advice has rarely been given. Spot on!

Stand near a place in Shanghai (or anywhere in China) that sells cigarets, and watch the next guy who buys a pack. He'll tear open the pack, and the plastic wrapping and foil liner will tumble from his fingers to the sidewalk as if there are only laws of nature involved. No thought involved.

It is with precisely this same natural ease that the driver of a truck or bus or car or bike or scooter or bicycle, or pedestrian for that matter, will suddenly turn directly into your path. The thought that there might be a YBR250 hurtling in their general direction with someone's father and husband as pilot simply does not occur to them. The thought does not occur, yet the act of turning into your path does -- with harrowing regularity. Plan for it, always.

TIC. Getting angry won't change it.

cheers!

Dipstick,
Euphonious,
Indeed! What more is there to say? :lol8:
I'm going to try and imagine that they are a herd of cows and see if that helps with some of my disappointment/ anger.

Euphonious,
I imagine that guy dropping his ciggy box wrappings all over the floor and it infuriates me :gaah: even though, ultimately, these feelings are pointless and my burden to bare. I think the thing that gets to me is the fact that they all have the ability to learn... but they've failed/ chosen not to do so...

...but there's naught I can do about it and it's not my problem :rolleyes1: so I can finally relax.

Let's not turn this thread into a psych evaluation. What's important is that we can blend in without getting hurt or picking up any bad habits.

Yeah Dipstick, I read that thread too and it's helped me quite a lot with maintaining a rational state while driving. I don't know that it's got a name but I consider it the "rolling rock mantra" in which all vehicles are considered inanimate rocks which are simply rolling around without any consideration to their course or safety. Once you get comfortable with this idea, it seems silly to be irritated and distracted by crazy drivers.

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Originally Posted by euphonius

Stand near a place in Shanghai (or anywhere in China) that sells cigarets, and watch the next guy who buys a pack. He'll tear open the pack, and the plastic wrapping and foil liner will tumble from his fingers to the sidewalk as if there are only laws of nature involved. No thought involved.

It is with precisely this same natural ease that the driver of a truck or bus or car or bike or scooter or bicycle, or pedestrian for that matter, will suddenly turn directly into your path. The thought that there might be a YBR250 hurtling in their general direction with someone's father and husband as pilot simply does not occur to them. The thought does not occur, yet the act of turning into your path does -- with harrowing regularity. Plan for it, always.

TIC. Getting angry won't change it.

cheers!

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i always throw my rubbish in those handy little rubbish baskets fitted to the front of all the bicycles

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Originally Posted by zhu

i always throw my rubbish in those handy little rubbish baskets fitted to the front of all the bicycles

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Now that's a thought...

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Originally Posted by Maux

Yeah Dipstick, I read that thread too and it's helped me quite a lot with maintaining a rational state while driving. I don't know that it's got a name but I consider it the "rolling rock mantra" in which all vehicles are considered inanimate rocks which are simply rolling around without any consideration to their course or safety. Once you get comfortable with this idea, it seems silly to be irritated and distracted by crazy drivers.

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That will work for me while I'm on the road, however, when I'm eating in a restaurant and I overhear one of those rocks boasting that he's 'a very good driver' I will definitely feel a little frustrated.