CITY GUIDE >Highlights
Model Meng steers road safety on the right path
By He Na (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-10 17:45

Meng has seen Beijing's traffic volumes grow and has also witnessed many horrific scenes of road carnage.

To save more lives and reduce the arrival time of ambulances, Meng designed a "life green path", which shows the shortest and smoothest path for the ambulance to use.

The service has extended to many hospitals across Beijing. The "life green path" plan has been used in more than 50 serious accidents.

Besides his bosses, the handsome young man, who stands 180 cm tall and considers himself more traditional Chinese than modern, has many other admirers.

His colleagues joke that he must have been the inspiration for the character in the movie Call For Love II in which a bunch of women intentionally violated the traffic rules so they could receive personal punishment.

His real-life fans, of many different ages, offer more practical support, such as bottles of water, face towels, fruit or small helpings of green bean soup.

Some of these people he has helped, but other admirers surprisingly have copped a fine from the young officer.

Taxi driver Jiang Kunlai is one such man.

In 2007, Meng issued Jiang a 200 yuan ($29) parking fine but the two have now become good friends.

"In my eyes traffic police and drivers are natural enemies on the roads because some police are always very harsh with us, but Meng changed my attitude on police," says Jiang, 51, who works for the Xianglong taxi company.

"I still remembered the way of his talking, it is just like speaking with a family member.

"In a bid to help me avoid getting a similar fine, he also gave me a small card on which has a clear sign of taxi parking lots."

Illegal parking is major road safety problem at the intersection and Meng was determined to solve the problem.