Crossing time
(Old Town traffic: the timer is red on the traffic lights)
Here is a perfect example of how the traffic system works in Suzhou; it’s a circus. As you can see, bikes pull out in front of cars, whether it’s their turn or not. A stray pedestrian is also crossing the road, but he is the one following the rules – the cyclists are just taking a chance.
One of Ying’s collegues made the point that with the roads and driving here, it’s a case of give and take; basically sometimes a car can pull out over the traffic and people honk at them, but give way, then other times you can’t get angry when some other driver does the same. The honking seems like a good-natured way of letting everyone else know you’re there and not to hit you, rather than (as in the UK) a way to register your road rage or to directly warn other drivers.
The red 66 on the lights is how many seconds the traffic here has to wait before it can go. It seems odd at first, but actually pretty efficient. The same system is used for bikes and people too, so if there’s only 4 seconds left on an eight lane motorway, I tend to back off. We can do 10 second crossings on the bike or if we run!
according to the photo, the traffic is not too bad. many cities in south east asia could not be better, i had been to bangkok quite a few times, i can tell it is much worse than this.
cyclists in singapore also don’t follow the traffic rules, sometimes they could be traffic yet sometimes they could be pedestrians, it depends on the situation which is good for them.