Honking is handled differently here in Beijing. You don’t just honk to tell people to get out of your way, you also honk or beep or ring your bike-bell to let people know that you are behind them and that they shouldn’t suddenly jump in front of you and force you to hit them. Sometimes cars will honk even when you are walking on the sidewalk – this is the Chinese form of cautious driving. Cars will also honk to let you know that they are not about to slow down to give you time to cut them off so you had just better think twice there kiddie before stepping in front of them! The sad, yet not unexpected, result is that after a while everyone stops paying attention to honking cars because we hear them CONSTANLY.
In reaction to just that phenomena, we present you with the following song:
(Think "I Just Called To Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder)
chorus tune
I just honked to say I see you
I just beeped to let you know I’m there
I just honked to say I’m passing,
and I really hope that you stay in your lane…
verse tune
No right of way
No stops on red
No ones even heard of safe-following-distance
No helmet laws
Just ‘make way for the bus’
Its funny how quickly you grow to love the chaos
Everyone together now - Back to the chorus!
6 comments:
So really stupid question, but is there like anything anywhere that gives a per-capita sort of accident rate for different countries around the world, maybe broken out by speed limits, and use of horns or lack of use. Like I was always really impressed that Jamacians and Greeks exist at all given they way they drive but then again I don't remember seeing any accidents while I was there so maybe they have some insight. A nice little pie chart would be cool :)
It was very similar when I was in Nepal. My friend Sara explained that there, no one behind you is your responsibility, so the honking of the horn while passing someone is like saying "Tag, you're it!" and handing off the burden or paying attention to the person who is now behind you.
Kris wants to know if you've ever considered a career in creative writing.
Niki - that is a brilliant question! One that we don't have the answer to of course, but still a fine request never the less. Does anyone else have this info by chance?
I don't have stats but I remember driving from Rome to the Amalfi Coast and being told that in one city we passed through people don't bother repairing their cars after accidents because they happen so frequently (a fair amount of horn honking was heard). This is also where we saw cars randomly parked in the second and third lanes of a 4 lane highway (instant parking lot).
There was also the time our tour bus got held up in Cairo because a guy wanted money to pay for damage to his car that was 10 metres in front of us with the damage to the front but that's a whole other story...
No pie charts, but you can find the raw data in the WHO's World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention, in the statistical annex, table A.4, page 188.
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