China has begun to crack down on ‘jaywalkers”. Yes, the new desperados in this society are those folks who are intrepid or desperate enough to attempt to cross the street when the crossing light is red. Egad! What scofflaws! Why did the jaywalker cross the road? To get the other side….anyway he can…alive and un-maimed if possible. If you have not experienced first hand the perils of crossing streets in Beijing, you don’t know what “combat walking” is really like. Let me dismay you with a tale of the trials and tribulations that await pedestrians in Beijing every day.
Who remembers the forgettable film made in 1975 called, “Death Race 2000”?
In this film set sometime in the ‘future”, homicidal drivers race across country with one main objective; to score as many points as possible by hitting and killing pedestrians, including jaywalkers. Absurd right? Well not as absurd as Beijing’s new crackdown on jaywalkers.
In a city where pedestrians are given no quarter and where no prisoners are taken by drivers who plunge through intersections where pedestrians are trying to cross lawfully with a green “walk” light”, why is nothing done against the drivers who could care less about yielding the right of way to their targets?
Further, I walk to and from work every day and have to cross a major four lane street to get where I am going. Yes, there is a crossing light signal to help pedestrians, but not much. The light remains green for exactly 15 seconds, 15. You either have to sprint if you can to make it all the way across the road, or cross the road two lanes only at a time. Being old and decrepit as I am, sort of, I have managed to stay alive every day, mostly I think, because I am not worth very many points anymore. But still, it’s crazy, and it’s very dangerous for any pedestrian. David Carradine and Sly Stallone have nothing on some of the drivers on the harrowing streets of Beijing.
So when I saw the following headline, “Police struggle to stop jaywalkers as Beijing launches road safety campaign”, on a article posted on the “South China Post” website (www.scmp.com) May 7, 2013, it made me quite incredulous. And then, after I read the first paragraph of the article,
“Police officers donning reflective vests and shoulder-mounted cameras manned more than 150 street crossings in Beijing yesterday to catch and fine jaywalkers, as the capital ramped up efforts to improve crossing safety.”
I could only marvel at the insanity of the pedestrians’ fate on the streets of Beijing when they, and I, take part in the macabre sequel to Death Race 2000 we must endure every day.
Hawkeye in China
Lex Smith