| Hm, same issue as yesterday. 1) This is what I am trying to say: the driving culture in China is that the WRITTEN rules are not important. What's important are the UNWRITTEN rules (and the written rules that the traffic cops are enforcing on any particular day.) I think in this case WJS is 100% right - if he were to decide to follow all the written rules, he would be disobeying all the unwritten rules. This would make him a bad and dangerous driver, just as if in Germany someone were to decide to disobey all the written rules. Driving is the most dangerous thing most people do on a daily basis, and to take it upon yourself to change society by disobeying the important rules (the unwritten ones) makes you a danger to yourself and others. 2) However, sorry WJS, I disagree with you completely that these rules cannot work in Shanghai. They don't work because people choose not to follow them, but in crowded cities all over the world, including New York, they work just fine. The principle is, no central city has good traffic - the demand is far more than any city can meet, even cities like Los Angeles or Houston that put traffic above every other consideration of a good city. You simply can not meet the traffic demand. Far better is to follow London or Singapore and try NOT to meet traffic demands as much as possible, to make the city better for pedestrians. |
How I Drive in Shanghai?