Never again should you complain about the traffic where you live
- Thread starter NDallasRuss
- Start date
At least you get a great view of the smog while you're sitting in traffic.
I work with people that travel to China regularly and none of them care for it very much.
I work with people that travel to China regularly and none of them care for it very much.
Hats my worst nightmare. I think the only way I would ever go to China is if it was a free trip, I have zero desire to go here or Mexico.
That's not a road. It looks more like some kind of parking lot. No traffic lines and about 50 cars wide funneling down to a few rows.
Reminds me of the toll booths in NY or NJ, huge jam up necking down to less lanes....
Well it is a freaking road...It is 50 lanes wide and funnels down to 20.
It was the week long national holiday known as 'golden week'
750 million people traveled during the week.
It was the week long national holiday known as 'golden week'
750 million people traveled during the week.
Point taken, but those in So Cal can still complain, as can those in ATL and Miami, IMO.
It should put those who complain about effectively nonexistent traffic in Tallahassee and other small cities to rest though...but something tells me it won't.
It should put those who complain about effectively nonexistent traffic in Tallahassee and other small cities to rest though...but something tells me it won't.
We spent a few days in Beijing when we were in China last summer, the traffic (and related smog) were awful. Not sure if it was that exact same spot, but I remember going through one checkpoint/toll booth & thinking "holy #$@% there's a lot of lanes on this road".
Chatted with our tour guide quite a bit about the traffic (while on the tour bus, stuck in traffic). In an attempt to alleviate it, 5 or so years ago they went to a lottery system for issue of new vehicle registrations. The rules vary by area/population (in rural areas they don't have any problems); Beijing is the most difficult to get a registration. You can't even apply for one unless you've lived in the district for a few years (think she said minimum of 3 years residence). Then you have to document that you can afford the purchase of the vehicle and be able to pay cash for the registration (which is more than the cost of most new vehicles). If you can do that, you go into the lottery, with about 1.5 million other applicants. They issue about 15k to 20k new registrations in a given months.
If you get a registration, you're still subject to limits on driving such that you aren't allowed to drive on one day a week, enforced via traffic cameras. Penalty for being on the road on your park day is laddered, so first offense is a small fine but it escalates quickly for repeat offenders.
She said in Shanghai they use a different method for limiting - the cost of a registration is absurdly high, such that if you aren't fairly wealthy you can't afford the registration.
Chatted with our tour guide quite a bit about the traffic (while on the tour bus, stuck in traffic). In an attempt to alleviate it, 5 or so years ago they went to a lottery system for issue of new vehicle registrations. The rules vary by area/population (in rural areas they don't have any problems); Beijing is the most difficult to get a registration. You can't even apply for one unless you've lived in the district for a few years (think she said minimum of 3 years residence). Then you have to document that you can afford the purchase of the vehicle and be able to pay cash for the registration (which is more than the cost of most new vehicles). If you can do that, you go into the lottery, with about 1.5 million other applicants. They issue about 15k to 20k new registrations in a given months.
If you get a registration, you're still subject to limits on driving such that you aren't allowed to drive on one day a week, enforced via traffic cameras. Penalty for being on the road on your park day is laddered, so first offense is a small fine but it escalates quickly for repeat offenders.
She said in Shanghai they use a different method for limiting - the cost of a registration is absurdly high, such that if you aren't fairly wealthy you can't afford the registration.
Singapore has similar laws. I was surprised at how great the traffic flow was in Singapore until I found out why. To even have a driver's license requires an application fee of around 75,000. That would explain why most of the cars that weren't taxis were high end performance vehicles. If you can afford 75k just for a license, you should be able to afford to drive anything you want.
Actually, traffic is getting a lot worse in many of our major cities. And we're building fewer roads all the time because our existing ones need major restorative and maintenance work, absorbing a lot of the available dollars.
I've driven in the traffic in those places, as well as DC, Dallas, etc. I've also ridden in highway traffic in India, where on a highway that's 6 lanes each way, you still have to watch out for a camel pulling a cart in the middle lane of the highway, or cars stopping in a lane to let people standing on the side of the road run over and get it. Still I've never seen anything quite like what's in that video!
