Shanghai Surprises: Rules of the road (or lack thereof).

One of the biggest cultural shocks I had here was the traffic. Not only is it like LA times ten with the amount of traffic jams but people drive like absolute maniacs. The other day, our driver was turning left and we were in some bad traffic. He promptly hopped over into the lane going straight, jetted to the front of the left turn lane (past about 50 cars) and cut over in the middle of the intersection so that we were the first in line to make a left. And no one batted an eye.

Even scarier than riding in a car here is being a pedestrian - a.k.a. speed bump. Remember the Atari game in the 1980's called "Frogger"? Well, trying to cross the street here is like being the frog. All intersections have a pedestrian walk symbol but it does not mean it is safe to cross the street, only that it is safer than usual. For example, you get the walk symbol and step off the curb. Your first obstacle is the bikes and scooters which blatantly disregard all traffic laws and pedestrians. If you make it past the scooter lane alive, you then have to watch out for cars making a right hand turn because they have the right of way over people. By this time, you are in the middle of the intersection when the cars on the opposite side of the street get the green light to make a left- and then you just run for your life. See? Frogger.

My latest strategy is to wait until a crowd of locals has gathered on the curb. Then I nestle myself in the middle of the group and wait for them to go. I figure that way, if we get hit, I am at least a little insulated in the middle of the pack. Anyway, it's worked so far. And Sev is living in his fantasy world that he is going to get a drivers license here. For now, I let him dream.

By the way, Sev and I went out for an awesome steak dinner for his birthday so I am attaching some photos of the view from our table.