Death Race 2000 or Bicycling in China

I am living in a cult-film. Back in the 70s there was a film called “Death Race 2000.” In this futuristic film the object of the race across America was not only to get to the finish line before the other drivers, but to score as many points as possible by hitting as many pedestrians and causing as many accidents as possible! More points were scored for old ladies and children than healthy adults. This is exactly what riding a bicycle in China is like, except that you don’t get any points. China is the “Dante’s Inferno” where we hope all of the sidwalk-riding bicycle messengers of NYC will end up dodging buses for all eternity. It is where the traffic-rule ignoring, spandex-clad, weekend Lance Armstrongs of Fairfield Country should end up riding their bikes without end!

It is a kamikaze attack of vehicles from all directions. It is a symphony of traffic chaos, without a conductor. You have to see it to believe it. And it even gets better after dark!

The bicycle is the main form of transportation in this rapidly developing nation of 1 billion plus inhabitants. It is used by just about everyone, from the elementary student to the businessman. Cars are still quite expensive here and there is no place to park them even if you are able to afford one. Some people have motorbikes but these are also pretty expensive. Every morning and every afternoon the streets are clogged with people going in all directions, most of who are using bicycles. Parents bring their small children to school using a bike. Many supplies are delivered by bike. Bicycle pedicabs serve as short haul taxis carrying people and all sorts of supplies. Tricycle dump trucks deliver anything and everything from furniture to television sets. Today I saw one stacked with twelve 20-inch TV sets. The other day I saw one with a refrigerator on it. Bicycles are used to transport food, both raw and cooked. Some are set up to act as rolling kitchens.

How to ride your bike in China…

Well the best way is to push off into the traffic, without looking and let everyone get out of your way. This is the way most people ride here. If that does not sound like a good plan, then you can try the modified plan wherein you push off into traffic and try to keep a look out in all directions for the impending doom of another vehicle or pedestrian heading towards you. These are the two approved methods of bike riding in China. There is no other way. You cannot wait for the traffic to clear. You might have to wait until midnight. You can’t wait for someone to yield to you. You will have to wait until hell freezes over. You just have to forget everything you have ever learned about how to behave in traffic and set off, hoping for the best. And it actually does seem to work. People are coming at you from all directions and at all speeds and most of the time they do not collide. It is a miracle. Of course, you can’t usually go more than a block or two without seeing someone exchanging words after a collision or near miss. Today as I was riding home, a motorcycle pulled right into the middle of the bike lane and stopped! I guess he was waiting for me to hit him and that is exactly what I did because although I squeezed my brakes as hard as I could, it was impossible to stop in time. He just smiled at me and motioned for me to go ahead. I didn’t say anything to him because in China there is no road rage. I mean none at all. If someone cuts you off, you might give him or her a dirty look, but you never start yelling at him or her and giving him or her a hard time. Last week, I was minding my own business, keeping an eye out for danger, when a young woman who was riding on the back of her friend’s bike just jumped off, right into my path. I guess she was looking for someone to hit her, because that is just what I did. I squeezed my brakes as hard as possible, but could not stop in time. I bumped into her leg. She looked down, brushed off her slacks and headed for the sidewalk, without saying anything to me!

After you get headed in the right direction, hopefully on the right side of the road, the fun is just starting. Most of the larger streets are very well planned with a bicycle access road separated from the main road by a divider. There is usually a nice wide sidewalk for the pedestrians. So there you have it, a road for the cars and trucks, a lane for the bicycles and a sidewalk for the pedestrians. It sounds good, doesn’t it? But do the pedestrians and taxis stay where they belong…not on your life. The bicycle path is much more pleasant to walk on than the sidewalk. And people walk on it side by side oblivious to the cyclists trying to push through them. The tiny taxis often use these side roads to get their passengers closer to their doors. And that is just the beginning.

Teenagers have two ways in which to ride their bikes. Sometimes they ride two or three abreast and try to go as slowly as possible while they have a conversation. They wobble perilously as they ride at a speed that is just above that needed to maintain balance. Of course they are always almost ready to fall over and you have to be careful if you pass them that they don’t turn right in front of you. The other way that teenagers ride is to blast at top speed through the traffic, cutting people off and narrowly missing pedestrians and other cyclists as they weave through the throngs, sometimes in the wrong direction! As I was riding home one day, some of the junior high students from my school kept trying to talk to me. I was busy talking to one of my other students, but that did not dissuade them from attacking me. They yelled out questions like “Welcome to China” and “How old are you?” as they kept swerving into my path to get my attention! They were totally unaware that I was talking to someone else or that they might cause me to have an accident! One of them was so busy looking at me, that he nearly ran into a taxi that was trying to cross the street.

It is amazing to me that in such a large country where the bicycle is one of the main methods of transportation, people can be so oblivious to others. But that is indeed the case. The best way to describe how the Chinese ride is as if there were no other riders on the road! Often, in spite of crowded conditions on the bike path, one rider will be merrily riding along, swaying left and right in a sort of day-dream state as if he or she were out on a jaunt on a country road. Most Chinese do not like to ride too fast. They maintain a very slow and deliberate pace, and of course they do it side-by-side, blocking the path, so that everyone else has to go slowly too! One evening as I was riding in the pouring rain, I saw a motorcyclist at an almost empty intersection cross the traffic lanes at top speed, heading right for a bicycle. Just as they were about to collide the motorcyclist hit the brakes and started skidding all over the place. He seemed unhappy with the cyclist although he was clearly in the wrong. Often I will see one person hit another, the first being clearly in the wrong, only to have the wrongdoer give the victim a hard time, possibly for getting in the way or not getting out of the way quickly enough. Elderly people will often ride their bicycles through crowds and traffic, ringing their bells as if to warn everyone to get out of their way. The bell and the horn are indeed used this way, to warn others to get out of the way. It is as if the person doing the ringing thinks that he has the right of way. In reality, there is no right of way in China. When I want to cross a street, I will head out in the middle of the traffic and look for an opening. If you want to make it, you must force your way, always exercising a sort of 6^th sense about when it is better to give in and when it is okay to make your move. One strategy is to never look the car drivers in the eyes. When they know you have seen them, they will never give you the right of way. If you pretend not to see them, they will hesitate for a second and you can make your move. But don’t try this with a huge bus or truck!

During Rush Hour

Here are some things you might encounter on a typical ride during rush hour.

Traffic Control???

Overseeing all of this are the traffic police and traffic wardens. These people are a little like a boy holding his finger in a dike, with big cracks leaking water all around him. The lady traffic wardens, holding their yellow flags, try to insure that everyone follows the traffic laws. But invariably as they are giving a firm tongue-lashing to one careless rider, dozens of other riders will be happily ignoring the rules! One day, as I was stopped for a traffic light, the traffic policeman made sure to walk over to me to let me know that I was 2 feet past the white line and had to back up. Meanwhile he was ignoring the people who were riding the wrong way on the wrong side of the street! This afternoon I came to one of the large intersections where the traffic light was not working. The traffic policeman was standing in the middle of the road and just watching all of the traffic, not giving any directions. A bus blasted through the intersection narrowly missing a truck coming from the other direction, but still he stood there like a statue! Maybe he was waiting for an accident to happen so he could file a report!

 There are traffic lights at most of the large intersections. They have a wonderful system of lights where there is a digital countdown until the light changes. It also shows how much time is left until the green light changes back into red. When the light changes to green, it is like the grand prix startup with the cyclists racing to get across the intersection before the light changes back to red. Of course, at the intersections where there is no traffic light, it is every man and woman for themselves. If you want to make a left turn, you don’t even have to wait for the intersection. You cross the road and start riding against the traffic until you get to the intersection where you can turn. Naturally the cars do the same thing! You don’t’ wait for the traffic to clear, you just turn right into the oncoming traffic and weave your way to the left hand side so you can make your turn. The really brave or totally unaware individuals will just make a 90-degree turn into the traffic and start riding across the road. If the traffic is too heavy and there is no traffic light, you wait for a critical mass of bicyclists to force their way across the road. Once you have enough cyclists to inch your way into the flow of traffic, you can cross the road and take over, but only as long as there are a lot of bicycles.

 Street walking in China

Walking is a whole different thing. Despite good wide sidewalks, many of which are now turning into parking spaces in the affluent cities, the pedestrians prefer to walk in the street or on the bicycle path. They seem blissfully oblivious to where they are as they walk with or against the flow of traffic. If there is no bicycle path, they will walk in the street before they choose the sidewalk. In Shanghai, the pedestrians were taking up one whole lane of 4-lane street. Can you imagine pedestrians walking down 5^th Avenue, using the bus lane while leaving the sidewalk more or less empty! I was confused why the pedestrians don’t use the zebra crossings. Later I figured out that the zebra crossings are not for crossing the street in China, they are there so the cars will be able to line the pedestrians up as they try to hit them! The cars never stop for pedestrians unless they are faced with the critical mass, which forces its way across the street. In the large cities, pedestrians do not wait for the light to change; they just step into the street and wander across, all the time narrowly missing getting hit by the cars and busses.

Are we having fun yet???

Of course if you want to really kick it up a notch, you can try riding your bicycle or walking at night. The patterns are the same as the above, except than nobody uses a light and so they can’t see each other. Even the cars will occasionally drive without lights at night! One night as I was riding in the rain, I came across an open manhole with no cover. I swerved just in time to miss it! Many times if there is a construction project, the building supplies will be dumped right in the center of the bike path. Don’t forget the pedestrians who will be strolling in both directions, as well as the motorcycles, taxis and other cyclists who are heading right for you in the pitch dark! They can’t see you and you can’t see them until the last minute swerve to safety!

There must be some Good News

Now…you may think that I don’t much care for bicycle riding in China, but actually the opposite is true. It is a great way to get around. I ride about 15 minutes to my school and I always feel invigorated when I arrive. It is hard to find an overweight Chinese and part of this must be due to all of the bicycle riding. The bicycle is a sort of social instrument for the Chinese. They enjoy riding together and talking, delightfully unaware of the other riders of course! Children are free to go anywhere with their bikes. They don’t have to wait for their parents to drive them. If you don’t have a bike, you just hop on the back of your friend’s bike. All of the Chinese have learned from an early age how to balance on the back of a bicycle. Children are always sitting on their parent’s rear bike rack. As they get older, they learn to sit sideways and cross their legs like they are sitting on a chair. Its illegal, but who cares! One will often seen young couples riding this way, the woman’s arm gently wrapped around the man. As they approach an intersection with a policeman, she will jump off and they will walk across the street. On the other side, safely out of view of the policeman, she will hop back on and they will continue on their way! Since nearly everyone rides a bike to work, you will often see fashionable young women wearing short skirts on their bikes. Somehow they manage to maintain their modesty while getting to their destination. Chinese women are also quite adept at riding their bikes while wearing ankle length skirts when out for a night on the town.

If you find yourself a long way from home and feeling tired or it is raining too heavily, it is no problem to hail a cab. The driver will expertly pop your bicycle in the trunk (its illegal, but hey, who cares!), the front tire hanging out and away you go. You don’t even have to pay extra. If you don’t want to hail a cab, the Chinese have designed the best poncho for riding in the rain. It is long in the front, so that it can cover your handlebars. It even has a clip to attach to your front basket so that it stays in place.

Pedicabs or bicycle rickshaws are found all over China. Everywhere you go these three-wheel vehicles look a little bit different. One interesting variation can be found in Chengdu in Sichuan Province. They have a type of pedicab called the “Hen-pecked.” These are a bit smaller than the normal pedicabs in Chengdu, which have heavy fiberglass roofs and bodies. They are usually driven by out-of-work people and are unregistered and of course illegal, but hey, who cares! The story goes like this. There was a man who needed to drive his family around. He built a tricycle with a small fold-down seat in the back. When he drove his wife and children around, his wife would always be telling him where to turn and where to go. Thus he was “hen-pecked” and the vehicle got its name. Now they are all over the place and a slightly cheaper alternative to the registered pedicabs. Of course, some of these ‘Hen-peckeds” are now driven by women so maybe they should change the name!

China also has bicycle dump trucks! These are tricycles, which have a small rectangular space in the back, which can be used to haul anything. I have seen them piled high with furniture or televisions or anything you can imagine. Their capacity seems only limited by how creatively you can fill them. In Lhasa, Tibet, I saw a bicycle dump truck with a freezer on the back. This was a Tibetan Good Humor truck!

You will find bicycles being used as roaming restaurants, complete with stools, which can be set up for the customers when parked. These will include a stove and all of the supplies needed to set up a temporary restaurant. Sometimes it is amazing what people can fit on a bike. The other day, I saw someone tying a 20-inch television to the rear rack of his bicycle. Just today, I saw a man carrying a 20-foot long load of steel bars on his tricycle dump truck.

 Bicycles are also very inexpensive in China. A plain, black bicycle, which is the standard model used by most Chinese only costs about 200 Yuan ($25). If you want to you can opt to get a multi-speed model for about 800 Yuan ($100) and this is much better for blasting your way through a crowd if you are a teenager! If you really want to ride in luxury, you can upgrade to an electric, battery powered model, which costs about 2000 Yuan ($240). Of course,

 I am really enjoying riding my bike in China. I feel much more fit after just a month. By the end of my time here I should be in very good shape, unless I end up in a body cast, that is!

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