Traffic 1.0

Traffic in China is so entertaining.  I could sit in a street corner and be entertained for a long time.  So much vibrancy.  So many types of vehicles.  So many kinds of people. So many modes of delivery. So many interesting antics. My collection of pictures and musings on that will be forthcoming.

This post is more about how traffic moves and how people seem to respond to other moving objects.  I am so fascinated by it and have talked about it so much that I have been banned by one of the girls from talking more about it. 

With so many people going so many places a person must be assertive to get anywhere.  But this assertiveness does not lead to aggression or the mind set that seems to drive American traffic. Responses such as "Get out of my way"😠😦.  "I'm in a hurry.😖😑"  "You cut me off. 😤😡" "Let me see if I can beat you when the light changes..." don't seem present here.  Honking is the music of the streets, but it doesn't seem to offend anyone.  It doesn't seem that anyone's day is ruined because they get honked at. No one guns it to get into a gap.  No hostility. Or road rage.  Accidents are few. If Wang Jian gets a honk, or someone cuts him off, or makes him wait, he does not get ruffled at all.  And per what I've seen, that is how other drivers function as well. 

How is this?  I'm not really sure. In some ways it seems like a love-your-neighbor-as-yourself kind of thing. I get many texts in Chinese and I have learned how to translate them.  Many of them are from the government with messages like "If we all work together we can achieve _________".  There is a much stronger sense of doing things for the good of others here than exists in the US.  

To illustrate, here are a few pictures outside of our window.  Incidents such as these occur twice daily during rush hour.  The white car going horizontally to traffic doesn't cause an ounce of problems .

This big black truck made a U-turn in that much traffic. No difficulty presented. Pedestrians and scooters go if there is a foreseeable gap.

Criss Cross Applesauce.  If you need to turn and there's a bunch of traffic, just nose your way in.

Notice the top row of cars---all going the wrong way in the lane; it didn't cause a problem at all.

Your guess is as good as mine as to what these drivers are trying to accomplish, but in a matter of 3-4 minutes it was all worked out and traffic was moving normally again.  Pretty artistic formation!

If I had a dollar for every time Wang Jian drives straddling the dotted line, I could buy myself a scooter at RT-Mart.  If I had a dollar for every time WJ didn't use a blinker to change lanes, I could buy a Maserati.  We have been in the van with him when he made a left hand turn right in front of two oncoming cars.  We were not broadsided.  Tom and I sat in the back; I'm sure our mouths were wide open in awe. No worries, it's how things roll here!