i like scahdenfraude as much as the next guy, but i think it's the slow inevitability of all of these accidents that's so soothing. it appears as though there is absolutely zero attempt to avoid smashing into something in a one-ton gas powered bullet.
Straight up, my most harrowing experiences on the roads have been in places like Shanghai and Taipei. In mainland China especially, you have a confluence of problems:
1) Lack of infrastructure to ensure safety (safer roads, better signs, etc.)
2) Lack of cultural safety traditions. The auto-fication of China is, by US standards, relatively recent. Basic safety etiquette isn't something that everyone there is brought up with and intuitively understands. The rule of the road often seems to follow the logic of a game of chicken; that's why two cars, clearly on a collision course, don't divert - each driver assumes the other driver will back off. Until they don't.
3) This is my mom's theory - she's lived half her life in the US, half in Asia and she strongly thinks that the lack of civil litigation partially accounts for the high rates of vehicular accidents. If you introduced the possibility that accidents --> legal suits --> financial damages, she thinks that would create a massive incentive for people in China to start driving better. You'd think that, well, personal safety would be sufficient but the point here is that until the people causing the accidents are forced to pay (literally) for their inattention or disregard, there's insufficient incentive for bad habits to change. I don't know if I wholly buy that but it's an interesting argument.
yeah - I think of how bad of drivers a lot of Americans are, and most of us have been riding in cars since infancy, absorbing the rules of the road as we grew. If you're like me, your parents let you steer when you're a kid, and drive in fields and parking lots. And you start driving at 15 or so.
I can't imagine taking an immense population of adults, and handing them car keys for the first time.
Off topic, and a few months late, but I just learned Chinese bus drivers and conductors no longer address passengers as 'comrade'. That's a little sad.
"BEIJING | Mon May 31, 2010 2:21am EDT
(Reuters) - China's bus drivers and ticket sellers have been urged to leave communism behind, with a new training manual instructing them to call travellers "sir" or "madam" instead of "comrade," state media reported on Monday.
Older Beijingers, a few of whom still wear "Mao suits" that were once a virtual uniform for China's hundreds of millions of citizens, will be exempt from the new ruling.
"Old comrade" is listed as the final possible choice of address for elderly travellers, but it comes after "elder master" and "elder sir," the Beijing Youth Daily reported."
I'd like to be addressed as 'elder master' in public, btw.
dollar_binI heartily endorse this product and/or event 2,326 Posts
Watching this video I was struck (no pun intended) by how clean Chinese intersections are. Not a scrap of litter in sight! Not even blowing leaves or other natural detritus.
Watching this video I was struck (no pun intended) by how clean Chinese intersections are. Not a scrap of litter in sight! Not even blowing leaves or other natural detritus.
Except for the broken bodies of pedestrians and cyclists...
You'd think that, well, personal safety would be sufficient but the point here is that until the people causing the accidents are forced to pay (literally) for their inattention or disregard, there's insufficient incentive for bad habits to change.
uh, what about paying for vehicle repairs? or doctors visits?
2:04 is fucked up. why would anyone drive into a person that isn't looking like that? dude has plenty of time to stop and it doesn't even look like he was distracted. doesn't seem to have anything to do with a lack of signage, safer roads or a lack of automobile experience...
After visiting India, I will never take America's incomparable infrastructure for granted. We have roads with actual painted lines down the middle and traffic lights at almost every intersection, even in rural areas. In India, fools would be driving in both directions down a single lane road. Rickshaws in the midst of city traffic. Men publicly pissing on sidewalks alongside random chickens. Three people on scooters (those motorbike things) at a time.
I wouldn't say Americans are bad drivers as someone mentioned in a previous post, but I would say they are robotic, in a sense. When I see a red light or a stop sign, I instinctively brake. In India, such signals seemed to be interpreted as mere suggestions, however, the drivers did seem a little more alert. People would drive around slow vehicles even if it meant driving into the opposite lane of traffic. I have never heard so much incessant and unnecessary honking in my life as I did when I visited India. Manny's momma is right about how the lack of legal ramifications in China (as well as India and other nations) probably contributes to traffic accidents, but the culture around driving is also very different. Here, students take drivers ed classes and jump through hoops to prove they are responsible enough to drive. Mandatory car insurance and whatnot. People actually use their signal/blinker. Kids strapped into car seats until they're 6 years old. There, fender benders are considered pretty minor. Most of the cars don't even come with seat belts. People carrying toddlers on motorbikes without any straps to keep them from flying off. Pedestrians jay-walking, or jay-running into obviously heavy traffic.
If you're like me, your parents let you steer when you're a kid, and drive in fields and parking lots. And you start driving at 15 or so.
I learned how to drive in a curvy, single-lane cemetery. Three-point turns on tight paths with little traffic = great situation. If you hit something, you know, it's not going to cause a fatality.
RAJ
tenacious local 7,779 Posts
Comments
except more grizzly with really horrific accidents
it's become a zen tool since then. watching this shit calms me down.
It's as if the thought of using the brake never occurs to them.
Agreed! 2:15 is even worse though...
1) Lack of infrastructure to ensure safety (safer roads, better signs, etc.)
2) Lack of cultural safety traditions. The auto-fication of China is, by US standards, relatively recent. Basic safety etiquette isn't something that everyone there is brought up with and intuitively understands. The rule of the road often seems to follow the logic of a game of chicken; that's why two cars, clearly on a collision course, don't divert - each driver assumes the other driver will back off. Until they don't.
3) This is my mom's theory - she's lived half her life in the US, half in Asia and she strongly thinks that the lack of civil litigation partially accounts for the high rates of vehicular accidents. If you introduced the possibility that accidents --> legal suits --> financial damages, she thinks that would create a massive incentive for people in China to start driving better. You'd think that, well, personal safety would be sufficient but the point here is that until the people causing the accidents are forced to pay (literally) for their inattention or disregard, there's insufficient incentive for bad habits to change. I don't know if I wholly buy that but it's an interesting argument.
As I just noted, it's not that braking doesn't occur to them. Drivers just assume other drivers will be the first to blink.
I can't imagine taking an immense population of adults, and handing them car keys for the first time.
Off topic, and a few months late, but I just learned Chinese bus drivers and conductors no longer address passengers as 'comrade'. That's a little sad.
"BEIJING | Mon May 31, 2010 2:21am EDT
(Reuters) - China's bus drivers and ticket sellers have been urged to leave communism behind, with a new training manual instructing them to call travellers "sir" or "madam" instead of "comrade," state media reported on Monday.
Older Beijingers, a few of whom still wear "Mao suits" that were once a virtual uniform for China's hundreds of millions of citizens, will be exempt from the new ruling.
"Old comrade" is listed as the final possible choice of address for elderly travellers, but it comes after "elder master" and "elder sir," the Beijing Youth Daily reported."
Except for the broken bodies of pedestrians and cyclists...
;)
uh, what about paying for vehicle repairs? or doctors visits?
2:04 is fucked up. why would anyone drive into a person that isn't looking like that? dude has plenty of time to stop and it doesn't even look like he was distracted. doesn't seem to have anything to do with a lack of signage, safer roads or a lack of automobile experience...
that one is weaksauce compared to this one:
Crazy!
b/w
music is dope in this vid
Kindly,
parallax
I wouldn't say Americans are bad drivers as someone mentioned in a previous post, but I would say they are robotic, in a sense. When I see a red light or a stop sign, I instinctively brake. In India, such signals seemed to be interpreted as mere suggestions, however, the drivers did seem a little more alert. People would drive around slow vehicles even if it meant driving into the opposite lane of traffic. I have never heard so much incessant and unnecessary honking in my life as I did when I visited India. Manny's momma is right about how the lack of legal ramifications in China (as well as India and other nations) probably contributes to traffic accidents, but the culture around driving is also very different. Here, students take drivers ed classes and jump through hoops to prove they are responsible enough to drive. Mandatory car insurance and whatnot. People actually use their signal/blinker. Kids strapped into car seats until they're 6 years old. There, fender benders are considered pretty minor. Most of the cars don't even come with seat belts. People carrying toddlers on motorbikes without any straps to keep them from flying off. Pedestrians jay-walking, or jay-running into obviously heavy traffic.
I learned how to drive in a curvy, single-lane cemetery. Three-point turns on tight paths with little traffic = great situation. If you hit something, you know, it's not going to cause a fatality.
Those videos undoubtedly exist; they just can't be on youtube.