Driving in Shanghai: Traffic lights, big avenues and one-way streets?

ho hum, move along then, nothing to see here...

...of course as things are the powers that be take no responsibility in the slightest that there is no one place to get up to date accurate information and all the arduous processes needed to complete the aforementioned requirements etc. To say nothing of the availability of plates and how one gets hold of them.. even asking a traffic police orificer will likely return variable results much like some countries ballot boxes post election day...

my tuppence
i live downtown,as downtown as you can get. no bikes allowed on any road to my apartment. but a cop lives here with a huA licence and we regularly chat. he told me about a card you get.
so my point. if you want to you can go to your local district traffic police station and ask for a special licence which they will fill out giving you special permission to drive on certain roads.
now i don't work(don't need to) , i live in shanghai, so i used my gf's work address and made a route around to it using the roads i want. great thing is he just kept writing roads down till the card ran out of room..... no questions. and. no time restrictions. no day restrictions or usage. get stopped. 'im on my way to work.' (at 4 in the morning hahaha). greatest bit about it is. the road you travel may be longer than the the bit you use. and the card gives you ability to drive on it all. so i use a small 1000meter section of a road , yet i can now legally drive on any bit of it......also if you live in an area closed to bikes you can still legal use them.

now bits you can't. i found one hard and fast rule.... if you are on a road your not supposed to be..and you approach traffic or traffic light.... simply DO NOT GO TO THE FRONT AND SIT LIKE A LEMON WITH A DIMBASS GRIN ON YOUR BOAT RACE LOOKING AT THE COP. he will come to you he will fine you... just sit back a bit and watch , maybe 4-5 cars away. now when you get moving, just go. and they NEVER bother you. they to busy or lasy. so keep moving keep away and keep your licence.
i will post a pic of the licence if any one wants , or ill send info on other stuff. but its got my addy on it so not gonna stick it public .
hope this helps

Amazingly, the red-light-running rider walked away from it. No explanation for why it explodes like that.





cheers

Incredible, seems he does not even attempt to stop.
On the blast, looks like an off road bike with most likely a plastic tank.
Spilled fuel and hot engine don't go together, as it clearly shows.

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Originally Posted by 998S

Incredible, seems he does not even attempt to stop.

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I'm guessing his attention was elsewhere ...

http://i50.tinypic.com/2i1ctz.jpg

And yes, truly amazing he walked away! Some days are lucky days.

What's wrong with hand signals now?

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Originally Posted by euphonius

[...] Yeah, if it's only us in control of our fate on the bike, the risks are more manageable. But it's a zoo out there.

cheers

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Even if it was just us in control...

What looks like a crazy stupid crash can actually happen to anyone, depending on how much one's got in his head that day.

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Originally Posted by braillce

What's wrong with hand signals now?

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Nothing is wrong with hand signals ... nor is there anything wrong with light-hearted humour.

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Originally Posted by Lao Jia Hou

nor is there anything wrong with light-hearted humour.

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Yeah, you better be careful what you say on this forum recently ...
Several ppl. suffering from_____how does TB say that?_____"PMS (Parked Motorcycle Syndrome)".

U got me wrong.

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Originally Posted by Lao Jia Hou

Nothing is wrong with hand signals... Nor is there anything wrong with light-hearted humour.

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I only meant nothing's wrong with hand signals. I didn't mean to have a tone, nor to ruin your light-hearted spirit, and I'm sorry if I did.

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Originally Posted by 998S

Yeah, you better be careful what you say on this forum recently ...
Several ppl. suffering from_____how does TB say that?_____"PMS (Parked Motorcycle Syndrome)".

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I replied politely when Guyfawkes posted racist comments and shared his intention to attack a Chinese couple with knuckes & knife cause they looked like bike thieves.

I'm not gonna go mental over a hand signal joke. If it did read offensive to u, it wasn't meant to. I'm sorry.

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To anyone & for Christ sake's,

If u felt offended by the sentence:"What's wrong with hand signals now?" and seek an apology, please PM me and I'll send u a private apology till everyone is cool.

If that is not enough and you still got the shakes, just hop on ur bike and u should be all right.

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Originally Posted by braillce

U got me wrong.

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Sorry about that - my bad - I need a good ride!

BTW, to set the record straight (although a few MCM members already know this). I confess that I own a Harley (actually, I somehow managed to buy a second). I also confess that I own black leathers & a black half helmet. And I also confess that my leathers have lots of HOG, HD and skull patches & pins on them (I even have a wallet with a belt chain!). And yup, I sometimes dress and act the pirate part. But, more than anything, I enjoy laughing at my ridiculous costume on top of an overweight frame (the bike, of course) ... it is all quite silly, to be honest. But I like it every now and then.

Then again, I also ride a painfully old & junky farmer Honda (125cc on a good day) with my farmer costume (one of those green army coats I bought to fight off the Harbin winters). Also lots of fun when I need to visit one of the jumbled markets on the outskirts of Beijing ... and I fit right in with the crowd, as I always have a smoke hanging from my lips (with its ash carefully kept in place - an amazing riding skill, perfected after years in China, of which I am proud of).

Some call me the Imelda Marcos of Beijing, but with bikes/costumes instead of shoes. :lol8:

OK, we all need a group hug ... but I ain't gunna be the guy in the middle. I do have a few basic standards.