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On road rage and dead-end blame game
By Ni Tao |
November 10, 2009, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
IT is with interest that I read Todd S. Fleckenstein's letter - this is at least the 10th time this newspaper has carried an expatriate's rant against Shanghai's often wayward traffic.
In a detailed roundup of uncivilized behavior witnessed on local roads, Mr Fleckenstein cites as the top problem the motorists who don't play by courtesy-based road rules.
It's true that motorists - especially those who have never quite gotten into the etiquette of yielding to pedestrians when making right turns - should shoulder most of the blame.
But as Fleckenstein has fairly pointed out, jaywalking pedestrians are at least as guilty as motorists in making the city's roads a dangerous place to tread or drive.
My understanding of the traffic chaos problem has been based, in part, upon my experiences as a passenger in my father's car. Traveling with him on wheels can make me jumpy - and sometimes ill at ease - I hope he's reading this piece since my pleading in person doesn't seem to work for him.
He's not a mean person, but whenever he has to slow down for a jaywalking pedestrian - and causing a column of vehicles behind him to honk their horns angrily to protest against his tardiness - he curses those unruly pedestrians. They appear nonchalant as they cross the street, some even shuffling and taking their time, against a red light.
Jaywalkers are not the sole targets of my father's outbursts of "road rage." Vehicles, and cabs in particular, that don't stick to road codes can incur his wrath in equal measure.
This is the pathetic picture that many Shanghai motorists, and pedestrians for that matter, are helping to paint. In what has descended into a blame game, jaywalkers and rude drivers jab fingers at each other while ignoring what they could do to make life easier and safer for all of them on the roads.
One way to cut the traffic Gordian knot, as Mr Fleckenstein suggests, is to foster courtesy, even when it means swimming against the tide.
One key problem of this "quixotic" approach - for want of a better word - is that it doesn't necessarily guarantee a good-will response.
People are unlikely to be shamed into action just by one man's good deeds. Stricter and visible enforcement of traffic laws should always come first, keeping offenders at bay.
To curb the pervasive jaywalking for which the city has gained notoriety, it takes more than an army of whistle-blowing traffic coordinators, who are now being stationed at the city's intersections, often with a ratio of four to one.
More severe punishment, which is virtually non-existent, should be introduced to beat some sense into jaywalkers.
As for motorists, my suggestion is to employ a set of incentives to induce courtesy. My favorite is to have as many vehicles as possible equipped with a "greeting system" - an idea that has been floated to reduce simmering road rage if it is technologically viable. It would display cartoonish signs of apology and forgiveness on a car's rear windshield.
A lot of unwanted spleen could be saved this way.
In a detailed roundup of uncivilized behavior witnessed on local roads, Mr Fleckenstein cites as the top problem the motorists who don't play by courtesy-based road rules.
It's true that motorists - especially those who have never quite gotten into the etiquette of yielding to pedestrians when making right turns - should shoulder most of the blame.
But as Fleckenstein has fairly pointed out, jaywalking pedestrians are at least as guilty as motorists in making the city's roads a dangerous place to tread or drive.
My understanding of the traffic chaos problem has been based, in part, upon my experiences as a passenger in my father's car. Traveling with him on wheels can make me jumpy - and sometimes ill at ease - I hope he's reading this piece since my pleading in person doesn't seem to work for him.
He's not a mean person, but whenever he has to slow down for a jaywalking pedestrian - and causing a column of vehicles behind him to honk their horns angrily to protest against his tardiness - he curses those unruly pedestrians. They appear nonchalant as they cross the street, some even shuffling and taking their time, against a red light.
Jaywalkers are not the sole targets of my father's outbursts of "road rage." Vehicles, and cabs in particular, that don't stick to road codes can incur his wrath in equal measure.
This is the pathetic picture that many Shanghai motorists, and pedestrians for that matter, are helping to paint. In what has descended into a blame game, jaywalkers and rude drivers jab fingers at each other while ignoring what they could do to make life easier and safer for all of them on the roads.
One way to cut the traffic Gordian knot, as Mr Fleckenstein suggests, is to foster courtesy, even when it means swimming against the tide.
One key problem of this "quixotic" approach - for want of a better word - is that it doesn't necessarily guarantee a good-will response.
People are unlikely to be shamed into action just by one man's good deeds. Stricter and visible enforcement of traffic laws should always come first, keeping offenders at bay.
To curb the pervasive jaywalking for which the city has gained notoriety, it takes more than an army of whistle-blowing traffic coordinators, who are now being stationed at the city's intersections, often with a ratio of four to one.
More severe punishment, which is virtually non-existent, should be introduced to beat some sense into jaywalkers.
As for motorists, my suggestion is to employ a set of incentives to induce courtesy. My favorite is to have as many vehicles as possible equipped with a "greeting system" - an idea that has been floated to reduce simmering road rage if it is technologically viable. It would display cartoonish signs of apology and forgiveness on a car's rear windshield.
A lot of unwanted spleen could be saved this way.
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