Comments on: Egypt: Respecting Traffic Lights http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/08/31/egypt-respecting-traffic-lights/ The world is talking. Are you listening? Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:22:30 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: jidiot http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/08/31/egypt-respecting-traffic-lights/comment-page-1/#comment-1511739 jidiot Sat, 06 Sep 2008 18:23:59 +0000 http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=49032#comment-1511739 I've been living in China for the last three years, and just wanted to express that Chinese in general do not respect man made laws at all when crossing the streets. I think it might be inaccurate to attribute success to obeying traffic laws. Here is a traffic story close to my heart. People say this is the Chinese century, perhaps this is the reason... In Hangzhou I hailed a taxi and asked the driver to take me to the train station. As we approached a highway traffic started getting congested, so the driver along with many others merged into the bicycle lane to get by. As we passed the freeway entrance there was a bus and sedan that had both tried to merge at the same time and had wedged each other into the walls of the ramp. Neither vehicle could extricate themselves from the mess. Since it was necessary for us to take the freeway my taxi driver drove ahead a little and did a u-turn. While I was expecting him to go back and get on a previous exit, what he did instead was take the exit ramp going the wrong way on the freeway. I was scared but all cars made way for him. Then he crossed a three lane highway still going the wrong way, drove on the shoulder for about 500 meters, and eventually merged onto the highway finally going the right way. I got to the station safe and sound, and in the end I was on-time. I’ve been living in China for the last three years, and just wanted to express that Chinese in general do not respect man made laws at all when crossing the streets. I think it might be inaccurate to attribute success to obeying traffic laws. Here is a traffic story close to my heart. People say this is the Chinese century, perhaps this is the reason…
In Hangzhou I hailed a taxi and asked the driver to take me to the train station. As we approached a highway traffic started getting congested, so the driver along with many others merged into the bicycle lane to get by. As we passed the freeway entrance there was a bus and sedan that had both tried to merge at the same time and had wedged each other into the walls of the ramp. Neither vehicle could extricate themselves from the mess. Since it was necessary for us to take the freeway my taxi driver drove ahead a little and did a u-turn. While I was expecting him to go back and get on a previous exit, what he did instead was take the exit ramp going the wrong way on the freeway. I was scared but all cars made way for him. Then he crossed a three lane highway still going the wrong way, drove on the shoulder for about 500 meters, and eventually merged onto the highway finally going the right way. I got to the station safe and sound, and in the end I was on-time.

]]> By: Daniel Duende http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/08/31/egypt-respecting-traffic-lights/comment-page-1/#comment-1510378 Daniel Duende Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:16:22 +0000 http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=49032#comment-1510378 I think the matters are not so simple here. Of course the discipline (mainly the self-imposed one, that comes from education and not from the police's batons) makes a big difference on the development of a people and their country. But if you just follow rules by the sake of following then, the whole thing may backfire. This is China, the "giant of the future", but these are all the colonized countries that still think as colonies too... and follow, with dreamy eyes, all the rules and fashions of their metropoles... D.D. I think the matters are not so simple here. Of course the discipline (mainly the self-imposed one, that comes from education and not from the police’s batons) makes a big difference on the development of a people and their country. But if you just follow rules by the sake of following then, the whole thing may backfire.

This is China, the “giant of the future”, but these are all the colonized countries that still think as colonies too… and follow, with dreamy eyes, all the rules and fashions of their metropoles…

D.D.

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