Driving in China two-way traffic everywhere · Two-way traffic everywhere in Driving in China
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Two-way traffic everywhere in Driving in China
Two-way traffic everywhere in Driving in China
Bicycles and motorcycles and sometimes cars ignore one-way signs. On divided highways, seeing pedestrians, bicycles and motorcycles going the wrong way down the shoulder is entirely normal, and a few go the wrong way beside the center fence. At traffic circles (roundabouts), drivers hate going around the island in the middle if they can avoid it; they will often just swing left instead. Lane markings are also routinely ignored; for example, taxis often go straight through an intersection via a lane marked as left turn only, because that gets them past other cars.
On newer roads there may be, for example, a roughly triangular traffic island southwest of an actual intersection. Two sides are roads; the third is a curving lane intended for drivers making a right turn form eastbound to southbound. In China, drivers turning left from northbound to westbound routinely use that lane.
Many Chinese cities have bicycle lanes fenced off on either side of the road. These lanes will carry two-way traffic regardless of the direction of the traffic flow: including bicycles and motorcycles plus the occasional car, truck and pedestrians. Cars routinely take to these lanes if traffic in the main lanes is jammed; they then honk at bicyclists to force them out of the way using their horn as a form of "sonic plow" clearing the way in front of them. The driver is operating under the assumption you will move and if you don't move in a timely fashion you are risking being struck down if walking or on a bicycle and will most likely be blamed.
Even the sidewalks often carry two-way bicycle and motorcycle traffic, plus the odd car going to or from a parking spot. Cars again operate under the assumption they own the sidewalk and its up to you to get out of their way. Again, even on the sidewalks, vehicles honk at pedestrians to get them out of their way.
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Driving in China Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.