Traffic Dodging at the Beijing Olympics 2008
Beijing, China
At a busy intersection in front of the Beijing train station I cringed as a bus suddenly came out of nowhere and barreled towards an old man out in the middle of the crosswalk. The man kept slowly walking, unresponsive to the blasting horn of the bus. I thought, “Oh my God, that guy is going to get hit.” The bus slammed on the brakes and stopped just in the nick of time. The old man kept walking, never changing pace; He might not have even noticed the bus. I did, and it freaked me out.
All of Beijing is getting ready for the 2008 Olympics. New hotel high rises are going up at a frantic pace. Some students stopped me on the street to chat. They told me they were practicing their English for 2008. The Forbidden Palace is getting a shiny new tiled roof. A clock in Tienanmen Square counts down the minutes to the big event.
The Beijing Olympics will be quite a show. But after visiting Beijing for a second time, it occurred to me that one of the biggest events won’t be on the track, or in the stadiums. What will it be? Traffic dodging.
I studied in Beijing years ago, and returned recently passing through on my way to Tibet. I had almost forgotten the crazy Beijing city streets, where a green walk signal simply means that your chances of getting hit by a taxi or bus decrease slightly. A place where crosswalks are painted onto the street, but mean almost nothing to anyone except the folks paid to paint them. And just when you are almost across and feel safe from the passing trucks and cars, along comes a pack of bicycles to dodge. By the famous outdoor Silk Market a man in a uniform waved cars by with a flag as the “walk” sign lit up, leaving the pedestrians on the corner unable to cross. Then as the light went to don’t walk, he stopped, leaving the crowd on the corner with no option but to cross through heavy traffic. I didn’t quite understand it, but it made sense to somebody or he would not have been there to wave the cars through. My cab drivers would fly down the narrow hutong alleys, bikes and people hurrying out of the way with the sound of the horn. It stuck me as a bit dangerous. I found that the best way to dodge the traffic is to cross with a whole group of people. Many times it is the only way to get the cars to stop.
Maybe the streets are completely safe for pedestrians and I am just used to a more orderly street crossing, where the pedestrian has the right of way. I could have been confused and startled by the horns honking, bicycle bells ringing, and the sheer number of people all around me. After all, millions of Beijing residents get around the streets just fine it seems. However, a flood of tourists to the area in 2008 will bring a whole bunch of people like me who are all unaccustomed to a place where the right of way seems to be won in a game of chicken between pedestrians and automobiles. These travelers will find themselves scurrying across roads, dodging large buses and speeding taxis. Their heads will be moving all around frantically, looking to the right and left as they prepare to stop quickly or jump out of the way. The will wait until they see other tourists, and cross in packs. They will participate in a hectic, often nerve racking activity, until eventually growing accustomed it.
The folks in Beijing seem to cross no matter what the light reads. Vehicles seem to fly through crosswalks regardless of the green walk sign. Luckily, the main tourist areas have below ground or above the road crossings, so traffic can be avoided completely. But for the 2008 Olympic visitors who venture on foot outside the main sites, or to some of the outdoor markets, there will be plenty of the high risk, low reward sport of traffic dodging.