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Traffic Madness
By Carsten | June 21, 2005
If Hong Kong traffic was bad just due to the sheer number of people trying to get past each other, Beijing is pure insanity.
Not because the traffic is so tight, but simply because everyone is trying to push their way forward. Car drivers respect the pedestrians and bicycles/rickshaws? They might have heard of it, but here it’s clearly the might-of-way and not the right-of-way that rules.
The trip by car from the airport to the hotel contained a good share of heart-stopping moments, but that was nothing compared to trying to walk down the street. The street corner nearest to my hotel has got to be the worst chaos that I have ever seen. Sure, there is a traffic light — even for pedestrians and bicycles/rickshaws, there are separate lights.
I have come to the conclusion that, for pedestrians, red means “Certain Death” and green means “Do You Feel Lucky Today?”.
Cars are allowed to turn right on red, meaning that you have to look behind you for those coming from the same direction as you, i.e. from behind you and crossing in in front of you (you are the one expected to hold back). And as you are about to reach the other side of the street, you have to watch out for the ones coming from your right.
Add in four or five street peddlers grabbing your arms to flog their wares at you as you step into and out of the intersection, and you find yourself dangerously close to your cognitive limits.
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