9. Halloween Special: The road.

It's close to midnight, and something evil is lurking in the dark.

Yes, it's a Halloween special.

Shanghai is to my mind a safe city. Touching wood when I say it, I do not think you will ever be in danger walking home late at night or having your stuff stolen on the train. There is one place though where you will always need to have your wits about you. On the road.

I heard somewhere that the future level of CO2 emissions in the world lies with China. Only a very small proportion of the country has a car but this is growing due to a expanding middle class. So China is very new in terms of having a driving history.

This youthful exuberance I feel is best represented on the road. Their driving etiquette has been borne not from a long established history of motor travel, but almost a rushed induction. Chinese people have very little courtesy to other people on the road, it is all about getting to the destination with as little traffic as possible. So this sees people flying everywhere. You take a taxi anywhere and I guarantee they will try to do some unnecessary overtaking at one point in the drive.
Saying this I always feel relatively safe in the car, the drivers have adapted to these dog eat dog roads and will drive accordingly.

The buses rule the roads, they are the biggest and can command there lane well. I'd give them the status of the T-Rex. The taxi's, they are the ones most in a hurry. They are like those raptors in Jurassic Park. Bullying the smaller road uses. Then there is the multitude of mopeds, they really are the common dinosaur. They will go about their own business but will make themselves known to the pedestrians. Next are the old bicycles the long necked plant eating dinosaur, they are slow and don't care what's going on the road. These are people who pose no threat, but are not bothered by their surroundings either. Then there are the pedestrians, we are made to be respectful of all cars, even when given the green man to walk you can never be sure to be allowed free passage unless you are in a sea of fellow pedestrians you may get the odd taxi who will try and slip past you, we are the humans.



Yes that is a Darwinian look at the state of Shanghai roads.

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One further point is that all drivers like to use the horn. They use the horn a lot. They will press it then hold down for an indefinite period. They will push it for pretty much any situation to 'warn' people of their presence.

Here was a video of when I got the honour of travelling at the front of the bus back from the golf. This guy was a standard horn user.

So keep your wits about you on the road!
Happy Halloween.