Driving in China

Just came back from a trip to China. Was driven around a lot, didn't drive myself. I noticed a few differences in driving style. In sum, I felt like I had to close my eyes a lot, which is apparently what the drivers do, too.

In the US, Canada, Europe, even France (!), people follow the rules of the road. They drive on one side of the street, they give pedestrians and cyclists a wide margin, even on dreaded traffic circles among the jostling there are rules of priority.

In China, the first impression is, as a backseat driver, to think 'Holy shit! Stop! you're going to hit that... whew... whoa you barely ran over.. whew... OH MY GOD you're going to kill us all... whew.. ' ad nauseam (literally). And the constant honking. I imagine I would be able to maneuver if only I could think but the incessant honking is so distracting.

(from Living in China)

(that's really how it looks, but somehow that is not a traffic jam, just normal operating procedure, and cars get through)

But after a week of this, a pattern emerges. Not just the feel for the road, the different rules (and lack thereof), but also the different metarules. First, honking is not a mean thing. In the US, honking is like a rude gesture, an insult, a middle finger to your face. You do not use it unless 1) the light has changed and the person in front of you is an absent-minded enough idiot that they don't realize it's their turn or 2) Holy crap! My brakes are out and I'm coming towards an intersection or 3) Some mf- bastard just effing cut me off! In China, very much to the contrary, honking is a courtesy. Pardon me kind sir, I'm just a little behind you and I'm about to overtake you. I'm right here so be careful and don't swerve into me. Thank you so much!

In bigger cities,  the wider roads have sectioned off parts of the road for bikes and scooters, presumably for safety. But whether these extra lanes are there or not, people on bikes, scooters, cars, trucks, etc will all intertwine.

In the US, there is the metarule, the rule of law, the rule that rules should be followed. Or if they're not followed a tinge of guilt and a speedy getaway. In China, the metarule is the rule of expediency, the rule that rules are there to guide you but really, I can fit right here at the moment, and look there's a pregnant woman on a scooter, with a young child sitting on her lap, and talking on a cellphone (she's not smoking that would be crazy), and she's making a left turn across the multi-lane intersection, yes, she can barely zip through before everyone fills the intersection, but oh, she cut across into the right turn lane of the crossing road and through three lanes of assorted vehicles, and left turn success! Some people are confident of what they're doing, some people not so, some people a little faster others a little slower, but everyone is aware of everyone else and they accommodate. Yes, I made some stuff up here. but just the cellphone. All the rest was faithful. Also, I was on a moped with two others (adults) in city traffic. But I'm here, without PTSD.

(from Worst Intersections)

Sure they follow the traffic lights (as opposed to other countries where a stop light is very optional). If nobody is around sure they may slide through.

A slight detail that makes all this possible is that people just don't drive that fast. Not much faster than a moped (in traffic). That way everyone has enough time to make space for others and judgements about when to fill in that unoccupied space. On the highway however people will drive pretty fast, but there are hardly any cars on the super new clean highways.

There are cops everywhere, at every street corner in their cute little police boxes, but it seems they're not there for traffic but for shopping pedestrians. Also, the policemen seem more like bookish barely-out-of-college age accounting clerks, rather than the usual beefy, sunglassed, terminator-wannabes elsewhere.