Friday is never a good day, certainly not when it rains. But the whole Friday ended up being a traffic chaos day. When I tried to take a taxi in Gongti Xi Lu in the afternoon to go to my Chinese class (lesson 182!), a cab showed the sign “pause”, but he hesitantly stopped. I told him my destination and he agreed to take me. Turns out the poor guy was totally frustrated as it took him 2 hours to take guests from the airport to Gongti Xi Lu, so he needed a break. We chatted on the way and he said traffic was becoming a nightmare with over 2000 new cars per day.
Coming back in the evening, as usual no taxis in CBD, even the tricycles were busy. So I walked home. Arriving near Gongti Nan Lu (Instituto Cervantes) I stopped to watch a bunch of people fighting in the middle of the street, their cars in all kind of weird positions blocking each other. They finally stopped the fist fight and slowly untangled their mess. Not that they got far. The whole Gongti area was becoming a parking lot. In front of Instituto Cervantes as well as on the intersection with Gongti Xi Lu, the Chinese drivers had perfectly succeeded to block each other by overtaking in the opposite lane and blocking the incoming traffic. In the pictures, no car is actually moving.

It turned out that it was one of the biggest ever traffic jams in Beijing – officially 140 roads were totally jammed, according to the police who stayed glued to their screens watching the chaos. Obviously no traffic police around to do anything. In a picture there is a police car, stuck too. None came out. Not their job I guess, and well, it rained a bit you know.
As long as Chinese drivers continue to drive like cave people, ignoring all the rules and just selfishly doing whatever they like, traffic and pollution will never improve. Police doesn’t enforce any rules. Biking is becoming very dangerous, if your bike is not stolen – due to the general lack of bike parking.
I talked about that – to the Mayor, to the newspapers. See some articles attached.
Don’t expect anything great to happen – authorities lack the courage to tackle the issues.
My report to the Mayor was published by the Waiban in English & Chinese. Feel free to request a copy.