I've mentioned before that crossing the
road in China is a dangerous thing to do.Drivers and riders routinely
ignore signals and markings, drive on the wrong side of the road and
generally show zero awareness of any other road user, motorised or
pedestrian. So I was surprised on my way home today to see that the
Yangshuo authorities had stationed some traffic wardens at the
crossroads at the end of the street.
What were they doing to help safety?
Good question. Normally people here, me included, also ignore the
lights and cross when it seems safe to do so, whether it's the little
green man or the little red man showing. These "wardens"
were forcibly stopping this activity then making people cross with
the green light. They were doing nothing at all about the traffic or
the danger. When I tried to cross because the road was empty one blew
his whistle and angrily pushed me back onto the pavement. When the
light turned to green he pushed me out into the traffic where I was
almost run over by a moped coming from the wrong direction and had to
run to dodge a coach that had run the red light. I can't help
thinking that their time would be better spent enforcing the traffic
regulations.
Oh yes, almost forgot, when I had
safely made it to the other side I counted them. On that one junction
I saw NINETEEN of these people, all, apparently, hell bent on
increasing the pedestrian kill rate.
