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I'm thinking China might want to consider investing in some traffic lights.
Or at least decide which side of the road they drive on. 😯
haha! 2.06 and 3.55 my personal fav's. Strangely no one appears to get that badly hurt most just getting up and dusting themselves off!
I can't help but think about those road studies that claim that removing all road markings makes the roads safer 🙂
A mate is currently riding through China, the truck driver are all insane apparently.
My brothers girl freind got taken out by a taxi driver in Beijing too and then went bonkers goes mental at her, luckily it was just outside her friends building and the security dealt with him 😯
Yeah the one at 2:05, I'm not sure if the driver didn't see him or just thought he'd try nudging him out the way with the car!
You are only seeing the nice ones.
You aren't seeing the dead children, smeared bodies, impaled people, hit and runs, drive by shootings, mass pile ups or any of the other things that go on.
Having spent most of my 20's in SEA and Korea I've seen more dead bodies than I can ever want to. More chalk outlines of people on the road than I thought possible, and lost too many friends from the motor bike group I road with.
If you effectively give people who up until 20 years ago were riding around on bicycles, scooters, tractors and buffaloes, something that is high powered (in respect to their original transport) that have litte regard for the rules of the road, either because they are poorly written or easily paid off when broken.
This video is what happens, plus all the really horrible bits that you don't get to see.
3:55 is a good one, but I like 2:45 better myself.
I did wonder if we were seeing the "you've been framed" version and that the reality does include some horrific stuff
Im sure the above is true but what about the 3:41. One on a slow moving electric bike and another on a almost as slow moving scooter.
They make no attempt to serve out of each others way.
They just ride straight into each other slowly ?
Do people walk into each other all the time when walking in china ?
Is being the one to move out of the way seen as being a sign of weakness or something ?
Are they all so wrapped up in their lives they dont notice each other ?
I know what you mean Quirrel, my mate whose riding through China's riding companion through Europe and the Middle east was killed by a car on his return trip through Europe. R.I.P Mattie
They are bonkers and nutters these Chinese! 😯 🙄
If you effectively give people who up until 20 years ago were riding around on bicycles, scooters, tractors and buffaloes, something that is high powered (in respect to their original transport) that have litte regard for the rules of the road, either because they are poorly written or easily paid off when broken.
I find the same is true in East Anglia... Less buffaloes though... 😉
Im sure the above is true but what about the 3:41. One on a slow moving electric bike and another on a almost as slow moving scooter.
Not uncommon
They make no attempt to serve out of each others way.
Each of them thinks they are more important than the other, are in their own worlds, or don't care.
They just ride straight into each other slowly ?
Makes a change, not looking back, did they have umbrellas up so they can't see?
Do people walk into each other all the time when walking in china ?
yes
Is being the one to move out of the way seen as being a sign of weakness or something ?
Yes
Are they all so wrapped up in their lives they dont notice each other
Yes
They don't have much of a test out there. My inlaws are Chinese and when they drive around they honk their horn as they pass cyclists as they have a tendancy to move in unexpected directions - away from the cities anyway. I was nearly taken out in a way similar to the sorts of things show in the video and then blamed for being there - they'll come out of side roads without stopping - or even looking it seems. As for the roads, well we drove along a recently laid 20 mile stretch that had completely collapsed - driver had to navigate around piles of rubble.
Also had fun on with pedestrians. I'm a bit chunkier than the average Chinese chap so they tended to bounce of me if trying to barge through me which they sometimes did. On a train I was 1st through the door of an empty carriage but by the time I had turned around to sit down in a seat a chap had beaten me to it - so I dropped down onto his lap which he wasn't so happy about. And when getting off people don't wait for you so again I'd end up taking a few back out with me. Not really helping with East/West relationships.... Oh yeah, they spit a lot too....
Some of those look staged they are so bizarre
I did wonder if we were seeing the "you've been framed" version and that the reality does include some horrific stuff
Never pleasant to go home in the evening and see the chalk outlines of a family of five, one obviously a baby outside the house gates.
As for the roads, well we drove along a recently laid 20 mile stretch that had completely collapsed - driver had to navigate around piles of rubble.
Because the local transport ministers, heads of villages etc pocket the money
are they all on heavy tranquilisers ?
Is it that they simply dont see the cross roads due to no markings or do they just simply not bother to look anywhere but ahead?? some of these could and should have been avoided.
I used to live in Taiwan and it's exactly the same there as on the mainland. We used to discuss it no end while we there. Drivers and scooter riders would just pull out on to the main carriageway without even making the slightest attempt at looking to see if the road was clear to do so. We concluded it had something to do with the Buddhist's view of fatalism.
i never saw the roads of Beijing quiet enough for that to happen.
There seemed to be some kind of mystical power keeping all the road users and pedestrians apart
now Nigeria on the other hand..... 😯
We concluded it had something to do with the Buddhist's view of fatalism.
Koreans do it as well, Thai's, Indonesians, Malaysians (but better) Laos, Cambodians, Arabs from the post above and friends who work out there, most of Africa, India and that central belt of Asia.
The Chinese pavements are landmined too. Dogs are rare, (medium or well-done) but the toddlers have trapdoors in there trousers that open as they squat; which is wherever and whenever they get the urge. 😯
I loved the Chinese' take on letting their small child have a pee.
1. Drop child's trousers no matter where you are
2. Hold child at arms length facing away from you
3. Wait for evacuation to complete
4. Pull up trousers
+1 Quirrel
That was my experiences of the Far East too, and incidently Eastern Europe wasn't much better when the wall came down - esp. when they all went and bought s/h big Beemers/Mercs with their new 'marks'.
But I do think its more to do with those in cars believing that they 'own' the road - a bit like the UK really...
Taiwan (or Beijing for that matter) have nothing on your average city in the Chinese interior... Although driving standards are exceptionally low nationwide (and the police don't seem to have any interest in enforcing any law/rules/discipline) I've seen surprisingly few collisions on my various visits there. I'm not saying that they don't happen, but that you don't see anywhere near as many as you'd expect given the way they drive.
I couldn't believe the driving when I was out there in the summer. Absolutely mental. Talking to colleagues out there, size decides the hierarchy ergo cyclists and peds are at the bottom of the ladder. Any spare bit of tarmac was fair game for driving on. Dubai was the worst I'd experienced beforehand but China took it too a new level.
But I do think its more to do with those in cars believing that they 'own' the road - a bit like the UK really...
Size does matter unless you have a Merc or BMW, then you rule the road, no matter what.
One of my friends in Thailand is a fairly wealthy business owner (and chief of police for the province, but that has nothing to do with him owning all the most popular restaurants and hotels in town, really).
He owned a car wash as one of his many business's in which I used to regularly meet up with him there before heading out for a ride.
The number of BMW's and Mercs that came in to get washed, with scratches bumps and scrapes on them was amazing. Just about everyone was highly polished, with a gouge or crack somewhere on it.
What was more amazing was when he told me how much some of them cost with import duty.
A 318i was working out at the time around 30,000-35,000 pounds. A 5 series was close to 50,000-65,000.
He always impressed me with how shrewd he was with his money as well. I asked him why he didn't have a nice car like that. He saw no point, he lived in Thailand and didn't want it getting damaged. So his cheap oldish pickup did the job and a couple of nice bikes.
I'd like to see people riding brakeless there!
Maybe it's a blunt form of population management?
Im sure companies like Giro,Met,Arai and Shoei could all make a few bob selling there products to those nutty road users.The helmets would keep there hair dry and avoid the need to ride whilst using an umbrella.
The helmets would keep there hair dry and avoid the need to ride whilst using an umbrella.
So naive. 😉
My Shoei lid cost somewhere around 300 quid imported out there.
I could buy a police deterring pee pot for 2 quid or so or a full face for 15.
Just like India, except the poor excuses for roads here are a million time busier and they're a bit more nuts.
The process of natural selection ... in progress.
Poor leader ship and a lack of organisation, speed bumps and large mirrors placed to allow the drivers to see cars coming from other directions, or simple road marking.
China up until recently hasn't had that much money, let's see how they do over the next 20 years.
Plus although it is very scary and people will obviously get crippled and killed, it is also quite funny, in a living in the ratrace has made me numb to others suffering, lunatic kind of way 😆
Coco nuts, cottom wool and string, that's what's needed Hahaha! Free Kung Fu lessons combined with bubble wrap and gaffer tape!
2:03 guy standing in the road, with hands in pockets, the driver simply runs him over. 2:14 2 women and kids trying to get across, I dread to watch this bit. Ouch! that's not good and it spoilt the whole laughable stupidity. Surely they must be doing something about that?
3:48 I followed the progress of the guy at the bottom after the woman and man collided and I have to admit I was relieved he passed unscathed.
Uttern madness, the death toll must be huge. It was funny when people where getting up and seemed OK, but that is deranged lunacy, even if there are 1 billion people there. Throwing lives away like that is nuts and it must cost them more in damages, than it would to sort the problems out.
Yet watch the Indians! I know it's speeded up mind.
We had hours of entertainment in the Fishermans Cove in Goa just watching the traffic!
your all wrong.
thats not China.
thats Devon.
2:04. proper laughed at that one!