Chinese Drivers

After spending more than 20 hours in a car riding in and around Shanghai and the adjoining countryside I can honestly say that Chinese drivers are a breed of their own.

The roads in and around Shanghai and probably most of the rest of the east coast of China are new, wide, smooth and well planned.  All of the highways have at least two lanes in each direction and usually three or four.  The pavement is all asphalt and there are guardrails on both sides all the time- not just along dangerous sections as in the USA.  Signange is plentiful and in both Chinese and English.

So the Chinese people have a great infrastructure on which to drive safely at high speeds.  The issue is that they don't.  I like to call them "wanderers."  For some reason they have a very difficult time staying in their lane.  If the road is open a good amount of the time many drivers will just straddle two lanes or weave back and forth between two or three lanes- continuously.  The do not stay in their own lane.  This applies even when there are other cars adjacent to them on the highway- they will creep over into the other lane forcing the driver in the other lane to avoid them by moving over or slowing down.

If they are driving a truck at 50 kph in a 120 kph zone, they will probably stay in the middle lane of 3 and go slow.  If they are driving a car at 50 kph a 120 kph zone they will stay in the left hand lane no matter how many people are behind them blowing the horn and flashing their hi-beams.

Most don't use turn signals.

In the slower speed areas many people will just pull out without looking what is coming and expect the oncoming traffic to swerve to miss them.

I am truly amazed I have not seem many accidents.  I think these people are worse drivers than Hondurans.