For some drivers, the light is always green

If I was more of an entrepreneur, I would set up shop selling brake pads and brake lights in Beijing, confident I would make a fortune.

Accelerating at high speed and then screeching to a halt inches from the car in front is the norm on the city's congested streets and it probably causes more wear and tear on those two safety features than on any engine part.

The prevailing drivers' philosophy appears to find any unoccupied piece of road anathema.

All of it must be covered all of the time by shuddering, pollution-emitting vehicles, regardless of the impact it has on congestion as a whole.

At an ordinary crossroads in Sanlitun just the other day, a colleague and I were in a taxi waiting patiently at the head of a queue for the traffic lights to turn green, at which point we needed to proceed straight on.

Traffic traveling from right to left at 90 degrees to us was gridlocked. But rather than leave a gap at the crossing to enable those like us to plow straight on, drivers blocked our passage. The consequence? Cars traveling from left to right at 90 degrees to us were now gridlocked, too, as we sought to continue our journey.

Tempers frayed. Our driver even got out of the vehicle in a rage and started shouting at other drivers.

Eventually, inch by nudging inch, we steered a course through the blockage amid a cacophony of car horns, thumped steering wheels, exasperated sighs and inflamed language. The wretched process added 10 yuan to the fare but, as it was raining, we felt it was just, but only just, worth the grief.

In short, anarchy reigns over Beijing's traffic. It's dog eat dog in the hairiest dodgem ride of them all. Those of a shy and retiring nature should not venture forth on four wheels.

That's why I have the greatest sympathy for the retired teacher who became an Internet sensation after he threw stones at cars that jumped the red light at an intersection in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province.

It was the 74-year-old's way of telling drivers, as they sit cocooned in splendid isolation in the safety of their vehicles, to beware of pedestrians.

And, in his own way, he was making a stand against the selfishness of many motorists.

The retiree's behavior may be regarded as reprehensible and likely to cause, rather than prevent accidents, but what did his neighbors think?

It turns out many applauded him, two other elderly men joined him in the car-pelting and yet others set about seeking more ammunition and refreshing water to enable them to keep their fusillade up.

Their tally for the day was 30 damaged cars, but it's to the Internet that we turn for the most meaningful statistics.

Some 400,000 netizens responded to a Sina.com poll, of which nearly 80 percent said they supported the old man.

A netizen called Biyuding20008 said too many drivers do not follow traffic rules such as stopping at red lights and not talking on phones while driving.

It turns out community members lobbied police for traffic lights at the intersection after a young woman was killed there by a speeding motorist. But the lights have not worked as a sufficient deterrent.

"Even when the (pedestrian) light is green, drivers just ignore it and don't slow down for pedestrians," the man told a local paper.

Although the old man was eventually stopped by police from hurling bricks, his protest had the desired effect: it brought even more attention to the issue and now police are planning to put more traffic patrols on duty there at night and are applying for cameras to be installed.

The invention of the motor car has undoubtedly brought many benefits to society, but it has also brought tragedy.

Last year, 73,484 people died in car accidents in China, according to the Ministry of Public Security's statistics.

Conversely, motor transport has helped economies enormously on the way to success and has been a boon in terms of leisure options.

But it has also allowed to rise to the top an aspect of the human psyche that was best kept buried: once inside our cars we develop a sense of invincibility and a selfishness that impinges, sometimes tragically, on the lives of others.

We should remember the old adage that our freedom to swing our fists stops where the next person's face begins. And that to make the law sometimes we have to break the law.

(China Daily 07/17/2009 page9)