I mentioned earlier the report that I delivered to the Beijing Mayor, report that was widely circulated in the Government. At first I thought none of the remarks were taken into account.
Well, maybe they did listen to people like me.
One of my main recommendations was to improve driving manners. See here the article of China Daily, and below the mentioned “bad habits”. Sounds familiar?
Driving manners target of five-year policy, 21 Feb 11, by Chen Xin (China Daily)
As others already pointed out, the new policies should not give us too much hope as enforcement will again be the weakest point. Who will fine bikes who fail to stop for the red light? What is being done about all the cars without a license plate?
Other new positive measures intend to improve parking lots in buildings and related. Too many parkings in buildings are either difficult to use or have simply been converted for other use (like a KTV…).
10 bad habits on the road:
1. forcibly overtaking another vehicle;
2. dangerously weaving between cars;
3. not giving way to pedestrians on a crosswalk;
4. using a cell phone when driving;
5. not wearing a seat belt while driving;
6. freely using the horn;
7. throwing garbage out of car windows;
8. not moving to the curb following a minor traffic accident;
9. running a red light on a bicycle or tricycle;
10. not using a crosswalk or following signals when crossing roads as a pedestrian.
They better hurry up and do something. In the past days we had again AQI levels between 400 and 500. Fortunately today the pollution was blown away and right now we can enjoy a real “blue sky day”.