Traffic 2.0

Like I said in my other traffic post, vehicles here are fascinating--and their drivers, passengers and cargo are even more so.  One of my favorite things I have seen I didn't get a picture of. I saw a mom and a young child on a pink scooter.  They were sitting back to back with the little girl sitting cross legged in a meditation pose, eyes closed while her mom zipped around the streets.  It seriously was one of the cutest things I have seen.

And that brings up one issue with doing a photo journal on traffic....it is moving.... always moving and when you see something cool, by the time you pull out your phone and get the camera up, it's gone.  Or it's super blurry, or cut off by another vehicle.....  So what you see here is only half of it! 

To break up my gazillion pictures of vehicles, this post is going to focus only on scooters and related vehicles-- 3 wheels or less.  

Here we go: (In no particular order....I'm way behind on things I want to record and it takes too much time for me to put these in an orderly fashion, so I'll just sneeze them out and make comments on some of them.)

The loads are often as interesting as the vehicle or the driver(s). 

Below is one of my first photos out of quarantine.  I called it 'Scooter Heaven' and I joked that if you have lost your scooter, maybe it went to scooter heaven.  Turns out there are a lot of scooter heavens so hopefully you can find your scooter; which leads to another question--how do you find your scooter? There are rows and rows and rows!  It is unreal how many scooters there are here, but the more astounding thought is that for every scooter, there are probably 10 people.

Many people are vendors off the back of these vehicles. They often have a loud speaker attached that amplifies their bidding to buy from them.

There are many cleaning carts. Notice this one has a broom sticking up.  It blends right in,  looking like a tree, but it is indeed a broom. (Street cleaning is hopefully another upcoming post.)

Rain/sun shields + windshield.  Fancy!

This doesn't look especially stable, but somehow they must be--this is a very common site and I have yet to see one capsized.

This is a delivery service vehicle.  (Think Amazon van.) There are tons of these buzzing around and lots of different companies doing the delivering.

Rental pedal bikes

Rental scooters

Helmets are clearly not required.  Some people wear construction hats for a helmet.

Vegetable delivery cart (per what Google lens tells me this is).

Just thinking here as I type...I have not seen paraphernalia strewn across roads from unsecured loads.  I'm sure it happens some, but not much. This would be quite the load to lose on a busy street! And on three wheels this looks so precarious....

A family vehicle.

The only rule that seems to apply is just get where you need to go and get your stuff where it needs to go anyway you can....

Garbage trucks.  They are so small!

Load size and lengths are entertaining.  I've seen people with a dozen or so 2x4s on a scooter--5 on each side; Tom has seen a scooter with the poles being carried horizontally across the driver's lap.  

This was a real find!  Inventive!

If you need to get off your scooter at an intersection, do.  No worries. These ladies have what I call 'scooter sleeping bags'. I can see how they would be nice if it was cold, but they use them even when it is sweltering.    

No rules for riding!

How is this bike staying upright?  I don't know!

This is a Door Dash (kuai di).  These guys wait in hoards outside of malls waiting for someone to place an order for food. I suppose their phone must buzz saying an order has come in, then they run in and grab the order then head out to deliver it.  

I'll end with a Pro Tip about scooters:   when walking home from the grocery store with your arms full of groceries, don't get too close to parked scooters. If one knocks over, more scooters follow. Just sayin'.🙄