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Shanghai a great city dominated by motorized beasts
By Fernando Bensuaski |
July 5, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
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DEAR Editor,
Shanghai aspires to become a great city. I contend that it cannot do so until the city leadership begins to respect the human element of the city.
A great city has more than high-rise buildings, glittery malls, parks, clean highways, universities and museums; it is a place when people are respected and feel safe.
A recent article on your newspaper contains the following statement:
Compared with other big metropolises around the world, the city's road accident toll in recent years has also remained alarmingly high, according to local legislators who are seeking solutions to improve the current traffic regulation and law enforcement for better road safety. ("Mopeds cited as safety risk on roads," June 30, 2011)
I would venture to guess that city officials and legislators do not walk at all in Shanghai's streets and have never walked in a civilized city. The problem is not the mopeds; the whole system is broken.
There is no other civilized city (be it New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Berlin, and so on) where vehicles are allowed to turn right on a red-light without stopping. In all of the quoted cities, and hundreds more, vehicles stop when pedestrians enter the crosswalk. In this regard, Shanghai is worse than even convoluted cities like Jakarta.
In Shanghai, be it in the suburbs or at the corner of Huaihai and Xizang roads, when the traffic light turns to red and pedestrians begin crossing the street, vehicles on the right lane blare their horns, accelerate and do their best to push the pedestrians off the crosswalk.
Traffic assistants and policemen stand around and watch. This is insane. This happens around the clock, over and over, each time there is a change of light; even buses use their horn and their bulk to push away men, women, children and the elderly.
I watch with amazement as hundreds of people sheepishly run away from buses and cars, act apologetically for having to occupy space on a street, and nervously cross six lanes, their heads moving right and left looking for attackers and their legs ready to jump at any time.
The Shanghai pedestrian is unaware that in much of the world, walking is a pleasurable and leisure activity; not a blood-pressure raising penance. The Shanghai pedestrian is a victim of a system that cannot continue to be supported by the city leadership. To quote R. Tagore: No civilized society can thrive upon victims, whose humanity has been permanently mutilated.
In Shanghai, the vehicle is an Olympian god and the pedestrians are disposable props. Unfortunately, this concept that things with wheels are gods is carried into the sidewalks, where bicycles, mopeds, scooters and the like move with impunity, their horns demanding that the disposable props get out of the way.
To quote your beloved Confucius, "Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?" And can we have a great city dominated by beasts?
Be well.
(Fernando Bensuaski, Managing Director, Goshawk Trading Strategies Ltd)
Shanghai aspires to become a great city. I contend that it cannot do so until the city leadership begins to respect the human element of the city.
A great city has more than high-rise buildings, glittery malls, parks, clean highways, universities and museums; it is a place when people are respected and feel safe.
A recent article on your newspaper contains the following statement:
Compared with other big metropolises around the world, the city's road accident toll in recent years has also remained alarmingly high, according to local legislators who are seeking solutions to improve the current traffic regulation and law enforcement for better road safety. ("Mopeds cited as safety risk on roads," June 30, 2011)
I would venture to guess that city officials and legislators do not walk at all in Shanghai's streets and have never walked in a civilized city. The problem is not the mopeds; the whole system is broken.
There is no other civilized city (be it New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Berlin, and so on) where vehicles are allowed to turn right on a red-light without stopping. In all of the quoted cities, and hundreds more, vehicles stop when pedestrians enter the crosswalk. In this regard, Shanghai is worse than even convoluted cities like Jakarta.
In Shanghai, be it in the suburbs or at the corner of Huaihai and Xizang roads, when the traffic light turns to red and pedestrians begin crossing the street, vehicles on the right lane blare their horns, accelerate and do their best to push the pedestrians off the crosswalk.
Traffic assistants and policemen stand around and watch. This is insane. This happens around the clock, over and over, each time there is a change of light; even buses use their horn and their bulk to push away men, women, children and the elderly.
I watch with amazement as hundreds of people sheepishly run away from buses and cars, act apologetically for having to occupy space on a street, and nervously cross six lanes, their heads moving right and left looking for attackers and their legs ready to jump at any time.
The Shanghai pedestrian is unaware that in much of the world, walking is a pleasurable and leisure activity; not a blood-pressure raising penance. The Shanghai pedestrian is a victim of a system that cannot continue to be supported by the city leadership. To quote R. Tagore: No civilized society can thrive upon victims, whose humanity has been permanently mutilated.
In Shanghai, the vehicle is an Olympian god and the pedestrians are disposable props. Unfortunately, this concept that things with wheels are gods is carried into the sidewalks, where bicycles, mopeds, scooters and the like move with impunity, their horns demanding that the disposable props get out of the way.
To quote your beloved Confucius, "Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?" And can we have a great city dominated by beasts?
Be well.
(Fernando Bensuaski, Managing Director, Goshawk Trading Strategies Ltd)
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