Jan 1, 2013 Traffic Law Amendments

[bigdamo]

Too often we blame the drivers, but at least half the problem is poor city planning and traffic light management. 4 way intersections with 180 second light cycles is bound to cause road rage in any society.

The sad part to all this is that it's not going to get better before it gets much, much worse. I've been out to dinner twice in the last 6 months as I simply can't stomach the 30 minutes it now takes to drive downtown and finding a parking spot. Routine 10 minute trips 5 years ago now exceed half an hour and sometimes can take over an hour at peak times.

2005 Trip to my favourite noodle restaurant = 7 kilometres / 3 traffic lights / 10-15 minutes
2013 Trip to my favourite noodle restaurant = 7 kilometres / 11 traffic lights / 30-45 minutes + mandatory parking fees since there are only 2000 parking spots for the 162,000 cars in my city. People walk in the middle of the street through the gridlocked traffic because all the sidewalks are filled with parked cars.



A friend of mine bought a car 3 years ago and never put the plates on it. 85,000 kilometres later he has never been stopped and has no tickets

Cheers!
ChinaV

Same deal in my ex small town in China.It used to take me 15-20 minutes(a few years ago) to visit mother in law now it is a good half hour then you have to find somewhere to park which can take another 10-15 minutes.I say to all the people who are going for their car license and hit there goal of car ownership where are you going to park your new found so called freedom I am met with a look of disbelief when I ask them how many other people where going for there license and were they going to buy a car.

Funny enough in my small town in OZ the council provide free parking for motorcycles and charge for cars.They are extremely motorcycle friendly here at least once a night I will see the advertisement on TV for car drivers to watch out for motorcycles on the roads.

10% of the population here would own a motorcycle of some description.

[ZMC888]

I say to all the people who are going for their car license and hit there goal of car ownership where are you going to park your new found so called freedom I am met with a look of disbelief when I ask them how many other people where going for there license and were they going to buy a car.

A Chinese friend told me that their father had a new car, A BYD. She said it stood for "Buy Your Dream". I said I had also thought it stood for "Bury Your Dreams".

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[bigdamo]

A Chinese friend told me that their father had a new car, A BYD. She said it stood for "Buy Your Dream". I said I had also thought it stood for "Bury Your Dreams".

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Most Chinese I know just can't stomach buying a Chinese car.Now they won't buy a Japanese car.I asked some about American cars nope no go there too.

I said your running out of options.

Trying to buy my wife a car here.I said how about VW tiagun(I/we drove one in China seemed alright to me)She said someone told her VW are not very good.I said things have changed.AHH that saving face thing still haunts me on the other side of the world.

[ZMC888]

Trying to buy my wife a car here.I said how about VW tiagun(I/we drove one in China seemed alright to me)She said someone told her VW are not very good.I said things have changed.AHH that saving face thing still haunts me on the other side of the world.

I love 'what someone else thinks' crap.

'Other Chinese person' -Driven cars for likely 5 at most 10 years, -Has access to speculative biased opinions in a culture that has only been on wheels for 10 years.

'Me'-Driven cars, motorcycles and trucks for over 15-20 years, driven on 3 continents and 20 countries. -Has access to entire western free press and a culture of driving cars for over 100 years.

Weight of opinion in mind of Chinese spouse, about equal.

[TB-Racing]

Driving schools raise tuitions due to tougher rules
2013-1-11 | Shanghai Daily Newspaper
________________________________


Students of driving institutions in Shanghai complained that they have to pay more money for the training as the schools had raised the tuition for both the new and the enrolled due to a rising cost since a new traffic law was launched this year.


With more rigorous rules, the passing rate of the driving examination had plunged to a record low level this year, which extended the learning process of each student as well as raising the cost of every institution.


Since yesterday, many driving schools had raised their tuition from around 4,500 yuan to around 7,000 yuan. Some schools even asked the students who had already paid and enrolled last year to pay more money to cover their raised cost.


Students from Hongyuan driving institution in Hongkou District, complained that they were asked to pay extra 500 to 1500 yuan for their courses otherwise the school would just refund the original tuition, which was just "outrageous and unacceptable."


"I think there should be another way and it's not right to ask us to pay more since we've already paid," a student told Shanghai Daily.


"We're still negotiating with the students. For us we didn't want the tuition to rise either, it's a market reflection," an employee of the institution on Kuizhao Road surnamed Zheng confirmed to Shanghai Daily.


"Before the new regulation, each teacher of us could recruit 36 to 40 students a year but right now each one of us can only cultivate less than 20."


Hongyuan was not the only school to charge extra tuition in the city, some schools in Minhang, Pudong and Baoshan districts had also started to charge the enrolled students as an underlying rule.


"Some of us had already been told to add money while most of us are still waiting for a better solution," said a student surnamed Shao in Jinlong driving school in Baoshan.


Local pricing authority had previously claimed that they would monitor the impropriate price rising of driving schools while had not yet started to intervene.


However, students who had signed contracts with the driving schools should not worry about the overcharge as they should be protected by the law, said Liu Chunquan, a local lawyer.


"Clearly the schools' request is ungrounded and if they stop the course or refund the money without the agreement of the student, they will be regarded as unilaterally terminate the contract," Liu explained to Shanghai Daily.


"The cost rising due to the new policy should be part of the business or operation risk to the company, which should not be transferred to the customers."


Students can just ask them to fulfill the contract and finish the course according to the terms, Liu suggested.


Teachers of Hongyuan complained that the price rising also upset themselves as they should lose many clients with the price as high as 7000 yuan.


"Before the New Year there were many students came and enrolled and few students had visited our office for these days," Zheng told Shanghai Daily.


"No one wants higher tuition. The whole industry is threatened by the new policy not because it's more difficult for the students but some regulation is just unreasonable."


Zheng said only 60 percent of the students who had passed the Subject One and Subject Two can take part in the exam of Subject Three while the other 40 percent have to wait for next time, according to the practice of the vehicle administration authority in Shanghai.


"It's pointless. Why only allow 60 percent of our students to join the exam? It's unfair to the other 40 percent and to us the schools as well," Zheng complained.


The association of driving schools had written a joint letter to the municipal government to appeal for the setting up of the quota limit, which was not listed in the new license regulations issued by the Ministry of Public Security of China this year.

[bigdamo]

I love 'what someone else thinks' crap.

'Other Chinese person' -Driven cars for likely 5 at most 10 years, -Has access to speculative biased opinions in a culture that has only been on wheels for 10 years.

'Me'-Driven cars, motorcycles and trucks for over 15-20 years, driven on 3 continents and 20 countries. -Has access to entire western free press and a culture of driving cars for over 100 years.

Weight of opinion in mind of Chinese spouse, about equal.

Your lucky.

Weight of opinion in the mind of my Chinese spouse always favors some Chinese person or news report no matter how vague or distorted it is.

[ZMC888]

Driving schools raise tuitions due to tougher rules
2013-1-11 | Shanghai Daily Newspaper
________________________________


Students of driving institutions in Shanghai complained that they have to pay more money for the training as the schools had raised the tuition for both the new and the enrolled due to a rising cost since a new traffic law was launched this year.


With more rigorous rules, the passing rate of the driving examination had plunged to a record low level this year, which extended the learning process of each student as well as raising the cost of every institution.


Since yesterday, many driving schools had raised their tuition from around 4,500 yuan to around 7,000 yuan. Some schools even asked the students who had already paid and enrolled last year to pay more money to cover their raised cost.


Students from Hongyuan driving institution in Hongkou District, complained that they were asked to pay extra 500 to 1500 yuan for their courses otherwise the school would just refund the original tuition, which was just "outrageous and unacceptable."


"I think there should be another way and it's not right to ask us to pay more since we've already paid," a student told Shanghai Daily.


"We're still negotiating with the students. For us we didn't want the tuition to rise either, it's a market reflection," an employee of the institution on Kuizhao Road surnamed Zheng confirmed to Shanghai Daily.


"Before the new regulation, each teacher of us could recruit 36 to 40 students a year but right now each one of us can only cultivate less than 20."


Hongyuan was not the only school to charge extra tuition in the city, some schools in Minhang, Pudong and Baoshan districts had also started to charge the enrolled students as an underlying rule.


"Some of us had already been told to add money while most of us are still waiting for a better solution," said a student surnamed Shao in Jinlong driving school in Baoshan.


Local pricing authority had previously claimed that they would monitor the impropriate price rising of driving schools while had not yet started to intervene.


However, students who had signed contracts with the driving schools should not worry about the overcharge as they should be protected by the law, said Liu Chunquan, a local lawyer.


"Clearly the schools' request is ungrounded and if they stop the course or refund the money without the agreement of the student, they will be regarded as unilaterally terminate the contract," Liu explained to Shanghai Daily.


"The cost rising due to the new policy should be part of the business or operation risk to the company, which should not be transferred to the customers."


Students can just ask them to fulfill the contract and finish the course according to the terms, Liu suggested.


Teachers of Hongyuan complained that the price rising also upset themselves as they should lose many clients with the price as high as 7000 yuan.


"Before the New Year there were many students came and enrolled and few students had visited our office for these days," Zheng told Shanghai Daily.


"No one wants higher tuition. The whole industry is threatened by the new policy not because it's more difficult for the students but some regulation is just unreasonable."


Zheng said only 60 percent of the students who had passed the Subject One and Subject Two can take part in the exam of Subject Three while the other 40 percent have to wait for next time, according to the practice of the vehicle administration authority in Shanghai.


"It's pointless. Why only allow 60 percent of our students to join the exam? It's unfair to the other 40 percent and to us the schools as well," Zheng complained.


The association of driving schools had written a joint letter to the municipal government to appeal for the setting up of the quota limit, which was not listed in the new license regulations issued by the Ministry of Public Security of China this year.

I wonder if, maybe not yet but later it turns out going to the Philippines, Vietnam or elsewhere becomes easier or cheaper to study for and take the test a loop-hole will form and thousands of Chinese exodus to do their driving test elsewhere, then transfer it? Or is it that Chinese already must do their test in China

[TB-Racing]

Or is it that Chinese already must do their test in China

One of my employees (Jiangxi Hukou) has an Australian driving license as he studied in Down Under and the vehicle management bureau in his small town did not accept his overseas driving license and he had to go the whole 9 yards for a Chinese one in 2012.....

[TB-Racing]

Programmer posts driving exam questions
Shanghai Daily Newspaper
Jan 15, 2013


TENS of thousands of aspiring drivers are praising a local programmer for uploading the first study materials for China's new driving examination, which is considerably harder than previous examinations.


"Geek saves the world again!" a netizen posted after an Excel file containing 898 questions and answers was uploaded Thursday night by a programmer surnamed Ren.


Ren's job is programming applications for iPhone in an information technology business in Zhangjiang in the Pudong New Area.


The questions relating to Subject I of the 2013 driving test has become a hot topic on the Internet because it is the first study material available since the new traffic law went into effect this month.


National traffic authorities previously had said that no study materials are available. They have not commented on the Excel file.


While more than 100 students have posted on the Internet vouching for the document - which is available at no cost - as having been essential for their passing the exam, its origin and nature are shrouded in mystery.


At least one test-taker said questions on the actual test could be found in the document. "Thank you, I studied your guide until 1am today and on the test this morning, I found all the 100 questions were from your guide. Thank you! You're so great," one netizen wrote.


Ren, a 26-year-old programmer from Anhui Province, said he also is preparing for the driving test, so he was motivated to find a way to prepare.


Last week, Ren said he found software on the Internet which was like a simulation application of the driving exam.


After downloading the file, Ren, using Microsoft Excel, filtered duplicates among the 2,000 questions in the software.


Ren spent another five hours summing up hundreds of questions from 180 simulation tests and created a final version of the 898-question guide.


The simulation software was found on a Hangzhou-based website for driving study at www.jxedt.com. But the website's staff said they did not know the source of the software.


By yesterday, the Excel file containing 898 questions and answers had been downloaded more than 55,000 times.


Even the police posted the link to Ren's guide. "I think it is a good thing for people to prepare for the driving test," an officer told Shanghai Daily.


Ren's pool was turned to a PDF file to be more reader-friendly by a netizen identified as Ventter on Weibo on Sunday, and that document also had been downloaded hundreds of times by yesterday.


Donations sought for orphans


To prevent scalpers from taking advantage of his work and making profit from it, Ren created a link on Taobao.com to provide a free download as well as the link on Weibo.


Ren said he wants the users of his guide to consider contributing to the China Children and Teenagers' Fund.


He said he has set up a pay link on Taobao for contributions to be sent to him, after which he said he would send the money to the fund.


"I priced the guide at 1 yuan (16 US cents)," Ren said.


"And if anyone wants to download it for free, I would also provide the link."

[Barry]

In civilized countries, it is an article of faith that you don't enter the yellow if you cannot exit the intersection before the light turns red.

My understanding is that you always stop when the light turns yellow/orange, only when you can't stop in time at the line anymore you pass through yellow/orange light. Furthermore, as far as I know in countries with civilized traffic you only enter the box if you are able to exit it at the other end. In other words you don't even enter the box at green lights if you can't exit it at the other end.

@ ChinaV

From my experience in BJ, I'd say traffic flow is better during the normal timed setting of the traffic lights than when it's switched to manual and some police guy is controlling it (sometimes during rush hours). Besides, what they need is traffic lights with road sensors. And a traffic campaign (re-education) bigger than the olympics ;)

Cheers,
Barry