Walking, Standing, and Other Risky Behaviors
At first, I assumed that jetlag-induced flakiness had affected my finely tuned sense of self-preservation. Through years of living in Manhattan, I have developed an advanced skill set for negotiating sidewalks, understanding crosswalk best-practices, and being in tune with street rhythms and traffic flow patterns. In short, I have not yet been run over by a bus, taxi, tourist or bike messenger – and I hope to keep it that way.
In Shanghai, however, I feel that the odds may not be in my favor. In a short two-block walk, a pedestrian can expect to be accosted by numerous electric, gas and pedal-powered bikes, scooters and motorcycles. The drivers and their passengers are a rag-tag assortment of uniformed school kids, elderly couples, chicly-dressed girls, businessmen in suits, small families, delivery men with gargantuan packages, teen boys and ancient women – or, more specifically, anyone who can get their hands on two-wheeled transportation.
A half-hearted tap of the horn is the signal of choice for these street and sidewalk bullies and all pedestrians recognize it as a warning that a cyclist is fast approaching, moving in for a kill. Scatter for safety or become another statistic – squashed, broken, bruised, or worse. As they sputter by, unfazed by expressions of scorn and annoyance, they smile on the inside, and relish their commuting superiority.
To up the ante, the city’s electric, construction and sewage workers have banded together in an effort to place grave-sized, uncovered and uncordoned pits and trenches in unexpected places. These can be found randomly along the streets and sidewalks but are especially common in shadowy areas and seem to pop up and disappear mysteriously overnight.
Street food carts teetering with boiling oil and skewered meats, fruit and vegetable vendors, bulging garbage bins, chattering friends and endless rows of parked motorbikes further choke the limited pathways, turning encounters with fellow pedestrians into comically intimate do-si-dos.
Along the sides of the street, at guarded intersections, as well as in brightly striped crosswalks, pedestrians can expect little relief. Car, bus and truck drivers in Shanghai have the undisputed right of way and it supersedes the usual courtesies given to the elderly, small children, the handicapped, or anyone confusing the familiar “walk” signal on the opposite side for a guarantee of unhindered passage. Here, traffic lights are merely suggestions rather than absolute “red means stop,” and “green means go” rules of the road.
Amazingly, it all seems to work. Cars pass directly through crowded crosswalks at full speed. Locals make their way to and fro, unfazed by Tour-de-France sized bands of bicyclists. Young and old cross the road and continue on their way. The city keeps moving, traffic keeps flowing and life goes on here at its own uniquely crazy pace.
© Markus Horak, 2009.
