Driving or better: being driven in China (Tongji part 5/5)
The first and probably last time that a driver in China was deservedly told that he drives too slow…not too fast
One thing that I think is very different from the UK in China is the way the traffic works…and yes it works… (though it includes or at least I see many more accidents…). Drivers, taxi drivers in particular, seem to be very competitive and have probably not heard about fuel efficient ways of driving a car…
Anyway, after a long day in Shanghai our driver decided on several occasions, for no apparent reason, to slow down to about 80 km/h – on the motorway. At one occasion he even used the breaks to go down to 50 km/h (he seemed a little tired) – at this point my colleague decided to let him know he is going to slow and that he should speed up… to give you a comparison, I have used taxis that went over 100km/h crossing a number of red traffic lights (just announcing themselves by excessively using the horn) in the city of Ningbo- 30km/h allowed.
The photo above is taken from www.helloningbo.com “Ningbo’s leading English magazine and website for visitors and expatriates“. Clicking on it brings you to a very useful page that contains a manual for using Taxis in Ningbo.
