Crosswalks Are Meant to be Ignored

[Martin Hash]

When you're in another country, the easiest way to get yourself injured is as a pedestrian. Traffic signals can apparently be ignored as long as you're honking your horn. Walking among the many vehicles, whether they be cars, motorcycles, bicycles, or something in-between, is a hazard people from America would find more than distressing, in fact, we find it downright dangerous.

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In China the crosswalks are well marked, and they work in a technical sense, but as a practical matter, you'd have better luck waiting for a small break in the constant traffic flow and run through the gap. It doesn't have to be this way: ticketing cars that rush the red light would work, as would throwing the motorcyclists who are blind to any kind of traffic signal in jail is appropriate, and execution would be the perfect punishment for lines of buses that turn across the crosswalks in front of walkers until the time runs out and you are left standing in the middle of the street as the light changes to green. That's why local Chinese just ignore the whole concept of right-of-way.

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