I got hit by a car.

[soberpete]

Second that!!! Most important rule, not only in China but everywhere. Here are just more opportunities to apply.

When I was 18 and made my driving license my teacher told us and made it mandatory to assume:
"That everybody on the road is stupid and always be ready for that. The car in front of you/the car heading in your direction/the pedestrian right hand side/the bicylist behind you/... is an idiot."

This rule applys everywhere and even more so in China.

That video replay just show how "brave" and ignorant people were at intersections. Even in Shenzhen, there is no shortage of insane bikers crossing G roads.
My road safety tip:
Make room for likely incident, make no chance for idiots to hit you.
Ride safe!

Wise words from TD.

In that ghastly video, many of the vehicles that get hit do so while committing egregious errors -- riding on the wrong side of the road or in the wrong direction, cutting between vehicles, or just failing to read the (chaotic) conditions of that miserable junction.

The message I take away is a strong reminder that the only norms in China are cornercutting and shortcutting and jaywalking and impatience and ignorance. Never expect 100% rational behavior when there's even the slightest opportunity for irrationality. Read the traffic around you, keep a big margin of safety, and assume the worst.

TIC

Andre, TD, Euphonious; that advice was also given to me by my driving instructor in the UK and has kept me safe from a countless number of potential accidents.

[soberpete]

It is good to remember that drivers in traffic can watch you instead of traffic lights. So if you are in the far right lane and jump to turn to left it can mean to other drivers that traffic lights changed to "green go".

Now I understood that there were separate lights for turn left and proceed straight forward. If turn left were green and proceed forward were red then there would had been some fault in the car crashing on you. However you would had still been guilty for turning to left from far right lane. I don't know whose fault it would had been in Finland. That is actually very interesting to say whose fault it was.

The accident would had never happened if you did not do it wrong or if the car did not do it wrong. So it looks like 50/50 fault like they do in China. But since the car could had avoided the accident if he followed the traffic rules I could give more fault to the car. However if you never broke the rules the car which broke rules would had not crashed on you. But you both broke rules and the car crashed on you so I think I understand the philosophy behind car being guilty. He as a bigger vehicle should had watched better to not crash on small vehicle.

That is fine rule to blame bigger vehicles since they can easily be more fatal and ignorant. So they need more responsibility and hence must take more blame.

I say it was 25% you and 75% car.

TIC TIC.

(And I think it would be best to travel by big buss while wearing motorcycle helmet in China.)

I claim 50% of the fault for not looking over my shoulder before I pulled out. I do use my mirrors, check over my shoulders (most of the time) and always wear a helmet but I made that mistake and have learned from it.
I'm embarrassed to ask: What does TIC stand for?

[Lao Jia Hou]

I'm embarrassed to ask: What does TIC stand for?

TIC = This Is China (intended to be a comment on how "different" [illogical to us] China is from what we are used to)

Sad to say, but that video shows events that are surprisingly common. In Beijing, there is a DAILY 30 minute television show that recaps the prior day's gruesome traffic accidents caught on CCTV. There appears to be no shortage of material to broadcast. And, IMHO, Beijing drivers are light years ahead of the drivers in 2nd and 3rd tier cities. It must be because traffic moves at such a snail's pace.

Re: riding in bike lanes. I've had police tell me to get into them, and police tell me to get out of them. TIC

[soberpete]

TIC = This Is China

Got it. This is an acronym for something that I know all too well.

Re: riding in bike lanes. I've had police tell me to get into them, and police tell me to get out of them. TIC

I'd love to see one of each of those police guys at the same intersection .

[Lao Jia Hou]

I'd love to see one of each of those police guys at the same intersection .

I was relaying a story to Barry at a lunch break during a little ride we had yesterday ... I'll share it here ...

A couple of years ago, I was trying to figure out what the h3ll was the "truth" about the difference between blue "A" plates and yellow "A" plates. People had been telling me that <50cc bikes required a blue plate, whereas 50cc (and more) required a yellow plate. Others were saying the cutoff was 100cc ... others had different stories. There is so much gossip that flies around the all-knowing expat community, I thought I'd ask the all-knowing-police at the Traffic Management Bureau (the place that issues these things for motorcycles). They should know, right?

I went to the counter, asked the all-knowing-policeman a simple question - got a simple answer ... which was then immediately contradicted by another all-knowing-policeman. The two policemen started to argue, then a third policeman came into the fray with a third story.

So, I was standing there, dumbfounded, and finally walked away totally confused. I turned around as I was leaving the building and the three were still arguing.

The "rule" is, I guess, it depends on who is on the counter that day.

TIC

[Fred]

Glad you're ok soberpete, that's the most important.

About the video, I understand why they do it, and the big challenge they have to educate all the people in China about the risks and mainly about the consequences of erratic behaviors of the streets.
That being said, I will maybe ruffle some feathers here : it's unbearable to watch, it's more than borderline on voyeurism, and I don't understand one bit why people are watching it (more than 10sec I mean).
Maybe I think like an European not like a Chinese, but yeah I know the risks, and yeah I know what's the result of a 30 tons truck hitting a bike and then running over a body... If somebody can think they can survive it, they're pretty damned stupid anyway.

Putting together some gruesome videos is not gonna fix anything. As you know, I just passed my driving license and wrote a long report about it on my presentation thread. As long as China will have this type of "training" and road education, you're gonna see this EVERY DAY somewhere in China. Scaring people is not the solution. Establishing a real driving education and making sure the system cannot be by-passed with bribery is the way to go. Sure there will always be accidents, in USA, in Europe or in China, but not like this.

Doing this video is like peeing on yourself to keep warm...

[ZMC888]

Pete, the shoulder check you should have done is sometimes referred to as the 'lifesaver look', which is actually better than using a mirror.

Because of videos like these from Heze Chinese car drivers mostly all stop at 'super long to cycle through' traffic lights these days, like a bad parent telling their child what to do because 'it's safer and is the law/rules' but not explaining the underlying reasons why. Their perception is that not obeying traffic lights causes accidents.

A red light - making me stop mostly for no reason, when a yield and look would have been enough, a green light trying to convince me it's safe to go through the lights without looking at a normal speed. I view them both red and green cynically.

[Nuhaus]

I view them both red and green cynically.

Quite true, you cannot rely on the traffic signals while driving here. They're like polite suggestions that are there for reference only (also true of the the lines on the road). After a while driving a specific route one can learn which are the intersections where locals ignore the lights, but as a rule I check my mirrors constantly for the idiot who is going to pass me while I wait for it to change.

What I find most interesting about Pete's OP is that although he was doing a legal maneuver, it looks absolutely crazy to turn left across lanes of traffic in an intersection.

[ktmracer]

Wow, glad you are OK. Gnarly video below...

[CantDecide]

What I find most interesting about Pete's OP is that although he was doing a legal maneuver, it looks absolutely crazy to turn left across lanes of traffic in an intersection.

Is it really crazy? Provided its a left turn only signal, I would expect slower moving traffic to keep right, and once you've made the left turn, you should be back on the right still. That's what you are instructed to do with a bicycle. Otherwise you'd cross to the left, or be in traffic, make your left turn, and now you'd have to move to the right again.

I guess the issue in this case is it was two left turn lanes, and then two straight lines. In this case I'd line up in the middle of the 4 lanes. Maybe that's what you've all been saying and I just didn't get it.