Commuting daily in Shanghai...

[euphonius]

Yeah, ebikes in China are a real pain in the ass and a real road hazard... It's just incredible to see them do stupidly suicidal moves day after day after day... Hospitals in China (or morgues) must be full of ebikers...

In Shanghai, if you're stopped at a red light, turning to green so you're starting to roll, 9 times out of 10 an ebike will cut the intersection in front of you. 9 times out of 10, guaranteed....

Yesterday evening, I arrived at my apartment after coming back from work. I didn't even have time to put my helmet on the table that I heard a tyre screeching noise outside, a woman shouting in fear and the sound of a crash. Went to the window and a taxi had smashed into an ebike who ignored the red light... The taxi was 10 meters beyond the impact point, it was a nasty one...
At this intersection just in front of my residence, it happens daily, seriously. Everyone and their mother on ebikes is ignoring the red light as it is a 2 lanes road crossing a "small" 1 lane road.

Dear Fred,

China surely must have some of the most dangerous roads in the world, and there many, many reasons for this -- not just errant, thoughtless and stupid driving by ebikes. It's errant, thoughtless and stupid driving by everyone, including motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians and all the other things that share the road like vending carts, street sweepers, delivery vans, packs of schoolkids or migrant workers -- everyone.

Even experienced drivers with some semblance of skills seem unable to restrain themselves from the Darwinian competition they face on China's roads -- the me-first jump to make a left turn before oncoming traffic clears, the me-first urge to accelerate through the yellow or even red light, the me-first decision to cut any corner on the premise that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. But this is a country where daily existence hinges mainly on dropping your gaze and obeying whatever authority is currently exerting itself into your life -- your workplace, your family, your neighborhood committee, your spouse, and, of course, no one more than grandma up in Beijing. Chinese education and governance and the daily barrage of propaganda all train people to check their intellect and reasoning power at the door, and obey. Obey whom? Whoever is looking. In the case of traffic rules, it's the traffic cop. If there is no traffic cop, well, there is no one to obey, so -- hurray! -- no rules. Do whatever you please, me first. Spitting is illegal, unless no one is looking. Corruption and fraud are illegal, except when no one is looking. Running over little children with your minivan is illegal, unless no one is looking...

Even subjecting citizens to driver's training and licensure won't make any difference, though a bit of classroom training with some gory films might help. People generally insist on learning the hard way, by killing or maiming someone else, or getting killed or maimed themselves.

As many of us know from experience, driver's training here is a joke -- with little or nothing to do with the principles of consideration and safety. It's all about passing a written and a road test, demonstrating one's ability not to think, but to obey. I've attached a recent Reuters story that gives an idea of the dimensions of the problem.

Key take-away message: Don't let anyone learn their hard lessons about mayhem and death at your expense. To drive in China, especially on a motorcycle, is to be on super-heightened alert at all times, anticipating what each and every person anywhere near you might be capable of doing in the name of stupidity, thoughtlessness or me-first greed. Not just other drivers; everyone.

Be safe, folks.

China driving schools teaching millions the art of war

BY ZHOU XIN AND KEN WILLS, REUTERS
JANUARY 23, 2012


BEIJING - China is rapidly becoming a country on wheels and its crowded driving schools are racing to churn out licensed drivers as fast as cars roll off the assembly lines.


But judging by the daily smash-ups and blatant disregard for even basic traffic rules on China's roadways, quantity seems to have trumped quality at many schools.


China surpassed the United States in 2009 to become the world's largest auto market, and just as newly affluent Chinese are snapping up expensive cars in staggering numbers, driving schools are bursting at the seams.


"There are so many trainees because everyone wants a driving licence," said Ren Xingzhou, an instructor at Fengshun Driving School in Beijing. "Driving used to be a profession in China -- now it's necessary living skill."


According to official data, China granted 22.69 million driving licences in 2011 alone, bringing the total number of licensed drivers in the country to 236 million at the end of 2011.


But no amount of classroom work or simulated driving may prepare drivers for the roadways that more closely resemble slow-moving battle grounds than transportation arteries.


In 2010 alone, China reported 3.9 million road accidents that killed 65,225 people and injured 254,075. Lack of experience is often cited as a key reason behind the rocketing number of accidents.


In hopes of instilling some sense of order, Chinese law requires drivers to attend a driving school before passing a written test. As a result, thousands of driver training schools, charging as much as 8,000 yuan ($1,300), have mushroomed across Beijing, a city of about 20 million people that is already congested with some 5 million cars.


Fengshun driving school alone mints about 10,000 new drivers a year, running classes from 8 in the morning to 9 in the evening, seven days a week.


Applicants must pass three tests to obtain a licence. The first part is classroom training to make drivers aware of traffic rules. As hundreds of trainees listen, an instructor explains a text book compiled by the traffic police.


A quiz of 100 questions follows, and trainees must provide correct answers to at least 90 before they can even get behind the wheel of the training vehicles.


"You don't have to be a genius to pass that as long as you read the book in the evening before the quiz," said a company clerk, who claimed he skipped all the classroom lessons apart from the first one when a fingerprint was required.


"ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS"


The second section -- the main part of the training that requires at least 54 hours -- is conducted on a paved proving ground that mimics actual roads and traffic signs but lacks all of the hazards that make actual driving a challenge.


Hundreds of metres from the school, one of the city's main roadways was packed with cars end-to-end on a recent winter day, a looming reminder to the school's drivers of the world they would enter upon graduation.


In each car -- mostly Volkswagens at the Fengshun school -- one instructor and one trainee sit side-by-side, practising all the required skills, from parallel parking to driving through a 30-metre obstacle course of six yellow-painted sewer covers without touching any of them.


"It's absolutely ridiculous. These covers are symbols of roadblocks, but which road would be so terrible as to have so many roadblocks, and even if there are so many roadblocks, which driver would be so crazy trying to pass them?" asked Ren even as he put the students through the required exercise.


For trainees who pass the second test, including parking in the right position and starting the car on a steep slope, they will apply their new skills on public roads, where already-licensed drivers routinely make sudden lane changes without signalling, and where pedestrians unexpectedly dash across roadways wherever they see an opening.


Road training lasts for 10 hours where soon-to-be-drivers are often bullied and horrified by Beijing's infamously short-tempered drivers.


On a recent day, a young driver stopped and hurled curses to complain that one trainee's car was moving too slowly.


"If he dares to get out of his vehicle, I would definitely teach him a good lesson," retorted Wu Liansheng, the instructor in the training car.


Turning to his student drivers, Wu said: "Now remember, you don't cross the line into others, but if someone else crosses into yours, you must fight back."


It's enough to make one nostalgic for simpler days when millions got around on bicycle.


© Copyright (c) Reuters

[Fred]

A great read Jeff, thanks.

It reminds me of the instructor I had in Shanghai for the motorcycle license and his shocked reaction when I dared to ask him if we would ever train on the real roads....
"What ? Are you joking ? It's too dangerous on the road !"

Yeah, that was my point, yeah...

[Barry]

Honking/flashing cars behind you in SH? Here in BJ we are behind the car honking and flashing!

Seriously, I don't have to many cars honking/flashing behind me. Only some flashing when they are still way behind me (couple of hundred meters), until they realise they aren't even getting closer to me. Maybe a lot of them already recognize me and think "oh no it's the crazy tall guy on his blue motorcycle" I've seen/heard about him, it's better to stay away from him!

Anyway car drivers here are retarded, pedestrians/bicyclists are suicidal and ebikers are suicidally retarded. They claim to have 5000 years of civilisation, however traffic here probably claims the opposite: 5000 years behind on civilisation.

A month or 2 ago, I've forced a car (police-style) to pull over to the side of the road. Since that idiot was in left most lane of a roundabout and thought it was ok to cut me off (I was in the lane right of him and wanted to continue on the roundabout as expected when using to 2 left-most lanes). So I turned right with him a bit and pushed him to the fence in the middle of the road forcing him to stop, which worked. I turned and drove up to the driver side of the car and saw fatty and his wife (or whatever) all scared and practised my Chinese. (I would like just like to mention the last part was all at very very low speed, before you think I'm a complete idiot.)

[Fred]

I know we're beating a dead horse here, and that nothing we can write (or do for that matter...) will change the driving habits of millions of Chinese, but boy, do I agree with the ebikers being suicidally retarded...

Every day, every time you see very close calls with them. One time I was on the G318 outside Shanghai, riding 150m behind a big concrete mixer truck. We arrive at a green light at around 70km/h, and 2 girls on an ebike dash just in front of the truck to cross the road. The truck locked every single wheel with a big tyre smoke cloud, I was absolutely certain that they would be killed in the next 2 seconds and that I would assist to a very gory scene. I don't know how, but the truck driver managed to avoid them, I was completely baffled and relieved. The truck driver stopped, not to yell at them, but because he was shocked and completely pale, you could tell he was sure too to run over them.
The 2 girls were giggling on the side of the road, the kind of chinese giggling meaning they're embarassed, but I don't think they completely realized what they barely escaped...

Thinking about it, in more than 9 years here, I'm terribly lucky not to have witness too many bad crashes, only a handful...

[998S]

Thinking about it, in more than 9 years here, I'm terribly lucky not to have witness too many bad crashes, only a handful...

If in anyway it comforts you, you get used to it .
Having traveled frequently to the country-side for my job in the last 12 years, I have seen my fair share of accidents.
And believe me, they're more brutal then anything I have ever seen in Shanghai.
Well, you get used to it, I guess in the same way as the locals, who can spend hours watching what was left (sometimes really not that much).

I agree with Barry though, every human being might make mistakes, me included.

But after seeing one time what can be the consequences, you might learn and adjust your behavior.
I myself stopped driving in the dark for example. Rather find a hotel and be fresh the next daylight.

I am sure that every local has seen these gruesome scenes at least once in his life.
Seems however the learning and adjusting part is still missing.

[bigdamo]

How the madness ramps up leading into Chinese new year just plan scared me.

I saw a guy stop dead in the middle of the road in the middle of the city cars people every where.I thought he had broken down nope he couldn't find any where to park so he stopped smack bang in the middle of the road turned his hazzard lights on his wife/girlfriend gets out and goes into the shops for 30 minutes. How do I know because everyone tried to go around him and crashed so we where all stuck there for 30 minutes till his misuses came back and off he went.I was the only one who yelled at him pity he didn't understand English but he got the message.

I can go on and on.When you throw in roads covered in ice makes for fascinating viewing until some idiot loses it and is spinning down the road coming straight at you and there ain't a thing you can do about it.

[bigdamo]

If in anyway it comforts you, you get used to it .
Having traveled frequently to the country-side for my job in the last 12 years, I have seen my fair share of accidents.
And believe me, they're more brutal then anything I have ever seen in Shanghai.
Well, you get used to it, I guess in the same way as the locals, who can spend hours watching what was left (sometimes really not that much).

I agree with Barry though, every human being might make mistakes, me included.

But after seeing one time what can be the consequences, you might learn and adjust your behavior.
I myself stopped driving in the dark for example. Rather find a hotel and be fresh the next daylight.

I am sure that every local has seen these gruesome scenes at least once in his life.
Seems however the learning and adjusting part is still missing.

I'll never get used to it.Going down that highway to Urumqi after it has snowed I'll see at least five big hits.I can't believe there doing over 100kph in those conditions.

[Fred]

If we have to find a reason for this thread (together with venting, which is useful ! ), it is to be very careful out there friends.

Yeah I know, every well-wishers will say the same to you many times every week or month, and it's not that which will change our riding habits or attitude.
But here we're writing about real-life stories we witnessed, and something positive or at least something to learn can be read.

If the 2 stupid girls I mentioned in my previous post could pull that kind of move in front of a big truck barreling down the road at 70km/h, I don't think they would think twice before doing this in front of a bike...
Slowing way down before every intersection, even if we have the green light, because we can be sure that there's an ebiker around ready to jump in front of us, saved my life (or at least my sanity...) many times already, I'm sure it's the same for each one of you !

[998S]

Slowing way down before every intersection, even if we have the green light, because we can be sure that there's an ebiker around ready to jump in front of us, saved my life (or at least my sanity...) many times already, I'm sure it's the same for each one of you !

Yup, indeed. This is exact what you need to do to stay safe.
Some of my friends on big liter bikes laugh if I do this, but it saved my ass so far.
Reserve the fast riding in China for the track.

[euphonius]

Yup, indeed. This is exact what you need to do to stay safe.
Some of my friends on big liter bikes laugh if I do this, but it saved my ass so far.
Reserve the fast riding in China for the track.

Dear 998S,

You got that right! Yes, it's fun to ride fast, but there are other gratifying ways to ride too. Like safely. And tactfully. And skillfully. Though I'm still a newb and hardly a skilled/capable bike handler, I find that a huge part of the satisfaction of riding in urban or rural China is the ability to maintain a calm but intense presence of mind and awareness of all around me, and therefore to pilot the bike safely and tactfully and skillfully through the myriad threats and dangers that China throws at me.

What I'm saying is that this kind of "technical defensive riding" is in itself deeply satisfying. So many riders and drivers just hit the gas or brakes and lurch from obstacle to obstacle, mindless to the hazards they themselves are creating or their utter lack of dignity and style. In my riding style, my movement is (ideally) smooth and paced and rarely choppy, and I'm reading the "terrain" a light or two ahead, aware of everything around me, predicting other drivers' behavior yet also leaving room for the unpredicted or wrongly predicted.

And all the while restraining myself from the cockiness or bravado that other riders like to display.

And all the while checking the bile that boils up inside when someone does something stupid. In these cases, rather than getting angry (usually), I think, "Damn, I should have seen that coming. Do better next time."

In Chinese there's this concept of 君子 (jun1zi3), which translates very roughly as "gentleman" but might better be translated as "nobleman" or "person of tact, skill and refinement", a bit like "sensei" to the Karate Kid's "grasshopper". Stop laughing. I'm not saying I come anywhere close to this ideal; I'm far from it, and far closer to the grasshopper level. But it's certainly my aim to ride like a 君子, and there's enormous satisfaction in the attempt. And it's also the key to survival on China's roads.

Hotheads and speedfreaks flame out fast and early here.

cheers!