Traffic Accidents in China
>> Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Despite having a movie called The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift, Asians are always teased for not knowing how to drive. I guess I'm not helping the claim since I have yet to learn how to drive. Well, the following clip lifted off of YouTube shows you traffic accidents recorded by China's closed circuit video recorder.
A few thing I'm surprised by:
1. There doesn't seem to be traffic lights or even a mirror anywhere.
2. The streets are narrow and there's no line or zebra crossings on the ground.
3. Again, people living there doesn't seem to be aware of how their privacy is violated when there are cameras everywhere.
4. Drivers don't seem to know how to slow down or honk.
5. People seem to be content standing in the middle of an intersection even though they are blocking traffic.
Of course, the accidents in this clip is accumulated over a period of time and it seems so much more ridiculous when they are viewed altogether but I wonder how a rapidly developing economy deals with cars being all the sudden available to a large population. When some streets are still narrow and most people are still used to biking everywhere, where would people even park their cars? How do you avoid hitting someone when people are everywhere and there's no traffic control of any kind? My main reason for not driving is because I'm afraid I might run someone down, seems like having to drive in China would be my biggest nightmare.
