3 ms·

I haven't been to Beirut, but I have been to Beijing a bunch, and by brother has been to Beirut I think at least twice. From what he tells me, Beirut is crazie

by dmoy 3y ago

I haven't been to Beirut, but I have been to Beijing a bunch, and by brother has been to Beirut I think at least twice. From what he tells me, Beirut is crazier driving than Beijing. In like all respects. The traffic fatalities are higher (18 > 15), the lack of lanes is more egregious (and people will dive across three lanes more aggressively), the amount of driving the wrong way down busy multi lane roads is more (which still happens in Beijing, but like not as often). Beirut (or at least the outskirts) also has things Beijing doesn't: civilian enforcement of traffic etiquette via brandishing automatic rifles, traffic intersections primarily controlled by tanks instead of signals, and the annoying practice carried over from Saudis of doing that stupid angled drive-with-the-car-tilted-on-two-wheels thing in thd middle of traffic. It's similar to Beijing in it always being slow though, so that's probably why the fatality rate isn't 30+ lol.

seanmcdirmid 3y ago
I spent 9 years in Beijing and saw some crazy stuff. Like a woman pulled over on the side of fourth ring by the police (weird in itself) then she gets back into her car and rams the police car in front of her by accident. Backing up in the expressway because you missed your exit is common, I saw a cyclist killed by a taxi on dongzhimen wai who was racing a green light about to turn red (the bicycle was crossing against a red). Oh, and the badly modded small car whose wheels popped off all at once while speeding on third ring. The most common traffic, though was slow without any yielding for pedestrians (the cars would just try to avoid you instead). Oh, and that’s 2016, it was already much better than my first visit in 1999 where buses hit the roads at night without their headlights turned on for some reason. But ya, none of the drivers were armed, so we had that at least :)

by dmoy 3y ago

seanmcdirmid 3y ago

I spent 9 years in Beijing and saw some crazy stuff. Like a woman pulled over on the side of fourth ring by the police (weird in itself) then she gets back into her car and rams the police car in front of her by accident. Backing up in the expressway because you missed your exit is common, I saw a cyclist killed by a taxi on dongzhimen wai who was racing a green light about to turn red (the bicycle was crossing against a red). Oh, and the badly modded small car whose wheels popped off all at once while speeding on third ring. The most common traffic, though was slow without any yielding for pedestrians (the cars would just try to avoid you instead). Oh, and that’s 2016, it was already much better than my first visit in 1999 where buses hit the roads at night without their headlights turned on for some reason. But ya, none of the drivers were armed, so we had that at least :)