Ask Pete: caught in a jam

This week, our CRI correspondent Peter Koveos talks about one of the downsides of living in a supermetropolis like Beijing – traffic. He also shares some experiences on Beijing's subways and gives us an insight into the driving culture in the city.

What do you think of the traffic culture in Beijing? Have you dared to drive a car by yourself?

I have not driven car here. I don't want to drive a car here. It's completely different than traffic I know back home. Obviously there's traffic everywhere but the traffic patterns are very odd in a way that if you're trying to merge onto the freeway that's also near an exit or a bus stop, it gets very congested in a short amount of time in a very short place.

I don't think I could drive here. They don't like using the lanes, for one thing. They cross lanes but they don't signal, that kind of thing. I would be kind of worried to actually drive a car.

How many people among your colleagues actually own a car?

None of my foreign friends own a car. We all figure that we are here only temporarily, so if we went through the trouble purchasing a vehicle that kind of cost just doesn't seem to make sense. A few Chinese people do, obviously, because it's more convenient for them to have a vehicle.

For the Chinese, what kind of social position do they have to be to be able to own a car?

There's an emerging middle-class here in China. Before, you have to be upper middle-class to own a car. Cars are still very expensive and obviously the better you do, like in the most places, the wealthier you are, the bigger vehicle you can have.

What steps did the government take before the Olympics to lessen traffic? Are these measures still used and if they are, do people follow them?

Before the Olympics, they basically took half the cars off the road. Now what they do is that they take a fifth of the cars off the road. So, once every five days, you're not allowed to drive. Let's say your license plate ends in one or six, on Mondays you can't be on the road. On Tuesdays, you can't drive if your car's plate ends in two or seven, something like that. It's made a little bit of a difference considering. During the Olympics that was completely different – they wanted so many more vehicles off the road.

What about speed limits?

You know what, I rarely see anyone approaching with speed. I don't even know what the speed limit is here because there's so much traffic that no one ever travels that fast. Sometimes when you are out going to the airport you can drive fast, but for the most part, no one speeds because there's too many vehicles on the road, congestion's too bad.

Pete says that the subway is the fastest way to get around Beijing. (Image: Radio86)The number of cars in China increases rapidly. Have you noticed this trend during the year you have lived there and have the traffic jams worsened during that time?

Traffic seems to be about the same. I do know more and more people purchasing vehicles every day and every month, that number goes up, but its increase is incremental. I take the subway to work so I don't have to deal with that during the day. Usually when I take a taxi and I'm out in traffic it is at night going out for dinner or maybe on the weekend, so the traffic patterns are a little different.

Are there restrictions on using heavily polluting cars? The government had a plan to get rid of old cars. Have the old rusty smoky automobiles disappeared from the streets?

I'm not sure what is the plan is for the older vehicles. You will still see a lot of older vehicles but it seems like there is more and more newer vehicles on the roads. It just seems sort of be happening naturally.

Are there a lot of road construction work going on? Does it lead to more traffic jams?

Well, it's not that often. Regular maintenance work must of course be done, but it doesn't seem that a lot of it is on the main roads. At least where I live, maintenance work seems to be on the little side streets. That causes congestion too. A lot of times you can see construction being done at night so that sort of alleviates a little bit of the problem.

Do drivers ignore pedestrians? Is it a nightmare to try to cross a street in Beijing?

They do ignore pedestrians! Back home in Vancouver if I'm crossing the street. a car will slow down. Here, I swear it seems like they speed up when they see someone! Back home, pedestrians have the right of way, it's just the the law. I don't know what the law is here but I don't think pedestrians have right of way. Obviously they are not trying to hit you but they are not trying to avoid you either, if that makes sense.

No, not really. They will cross when they shouldn't. They don't wait to the little man to pop up to say “Walk.” They walk and cross the roads whenever they choose and wherever they feel it's efficient.

Have you driven a bicycle in Beijing?

I don't have a bicycle, although I have numerous friends that have bikes. Sometimes it seems like the fastest way to get around because you can sort of weave in and out of traffic. There are various types – just regular pedal bikes, motorcycles and then there's sort of a combination of the two. There's a pedal bike that has some kind of motor in it, so once you're pedaling it cranks the motor so eventually you don't have to pedal. You don't travel very fast on that but still it's better than pedaling the whole way.

Are people aware of how much traffic and driving a car pollutes the environment?

They are aware and I think that's why no one made a big deal if once in every five days they have to take their car off the road. All you have to do is to look up and see the smog in the air, so they are aware of the problems for the environment.

Are there government initiatives to promote public transportation? Are there campaigns?

There are trying, they have done something. I always think taking the subway is the fastest way to get around anyway – you are in a fixed route, there's nothing impeding you, no stoplights, no increased traffic – you just have to worry about people being on it. I think the subway is the fastest way to get around Beijing.

Before the Olympics they were building new subway lines. Have they affected the use of public transportation? Is it less crowded?

A little less, and they are continuing to build more and more subway lines, which is really good. I remember when I came here November 2007 just to visit some friends and there was only few lines and now they have added a couple more. They are also building more. It will just make it so much easier because all of the sudden, if you don't have to take a cab or your car, if you can actually access everything through a subway or a bus, then so many more vehicles are off the road.

With a bicycle, you can weave in and out of traffic. (Image: Radio86)Do you have any tips about public transportation for foreigners in Beijing?

That is actually pretty simple. You know where you are going, you know where the nearest subway is, just follow the signs. Signs are pretty good because they have them in English so you can read those obviously. There are Chinese characters too. Make sure you find out which exit you are going; if you need to be in the north side, south side of the street, that sort of thing. It's almost dummy-proof thing the subway system here.

Any horror stories?

I have one horror story...I was peed on on subway one time! It was actually probably in the first two weeks I arrived. It was a hot hot day and I was on subway. I had my headphones on and I was listening to music when I felt something warm on my leg. So I looked up and it was a small child probably a year old. She was peeing, her father was holding her in his arms. There was a stream of liquid from her that reached my foot. I was shocked, I didn't know what to do, and the mother gave me some paper towels to clean up but I didn't know how to react, what to say, what to do. I got off the subway and tried to clean up. But now, when I'm on the train I make sure I'm nowhere near young kids just in case of another accident happens.

What about the police? Do they give fines to reckless drivers?

I have seen police pull a couple of people over but I haven't seen anybody pulled over for reckless driving. It will be hard to drive recklessly here because there's so many people on the road. It's not like you can weave through traffic unless it's done late at night. I really haven't seen a lot reckless driving here. I mean they are reckless in a way that they don't signal when they change lanes but not the recklessness like they're speeding and they're being silly in that way.

Have people gotten used to the traffic in Beijing or do they still complain?

They would have had to get used to it. It has probably been increasing every year for the last however many years, so they've gotten used to it. You have to have patience to live here.

If you compare traffic in Beijing and Vancouver, is it lot harder to move around in Beijing?

It is a lot harder; there's so many people on the road. Back home in Vancouver, our highway only has two lanes but here just driving through the city you can be end up four- lane highway. I mean don't ask me why no one had enough forethought to make a highway more than two lanes in Vancouver but actually there is 3 lanes, there's a High Occupancy Vehicle lane like a carpool lane and it's still not enough, but here I think it is far worse.

Interviewed by Ville Siltala