A week ago a
foreign correspondent acquaintance asked if I would be taking my driving test
in Shanghai. My first response was to
wonder why any relatively sane individual would subject themselves to
the terrors and vicissitudes of driving in the city. Anyway, I asked what the road test involved. “There
wasn’t one,” she replied. Based on a sampling of about 130 taxi journeys, it
appears no one else has taken one either.
A few of the joys:
1)
Taxis have seat belts in the
back. Just nothing to buckle them into.
2)
There are functioning seat
belts in the front of taxis. But drivers get all quizzical when you try to put them on.
3)
There is a centre lane marker.
It performs no obvious function other than marking the middle (approximately) of the
road.
4)
The opposing traffic lane is
great for overtaking (or for just driving along).
5)
Pedestrians exist. They are
also targets.
6)
Accidents soon become festive public gatherings, even
when the motorcyclist is on the ground and motionless.
7)
Rain allows for faster,
frictionless driving.
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