Driving in Shenyang City

When I was travelling to Alaska, at the tail-end of the pipeline days, I called on a client in Anchorage one day who gave me a friendly warning. In the event my car collided with another- no matter who was at fault – I should roll out of the driver's side, duck and run. Apparently, an overpopulation of young, male, unemployed roustabouts and a scarcity of insurers willing to insure this money-losing demographic segment had produced a novel method of determining fault. The local newspaper was reporting that drivers without insurance had taken to shooting it out following an accident. That frontier feeling is alive and well on the roads of Shenyang. Anything seems to go.

Yesterday we took a taxi downtown on the four lane north-south highway that connects the university district to the city. Traffic coming from the south was light, which was fortunate because whenever our driver felt the traffic was moving too slowly, which was often, he simply pulled out across the median into the nearest oncoming lane and used it to overtake. On one occasion, while we were in the oncoming lane, we ourselves were overtaken. Four lanes of traffic were simultaneously going south. Oncoming cars blared their horns and swerved on to the shoulder to avoid us. We blared back at them. Our lead teacher was completely calm during this maneuver. I asked him what happened in a collision, how fault gets assigned. As near as he could figure, he said, fault lies with the driver who actually hits the other car, regardless of traffic regulations.

Drivers similarly use the shoulder, which is one lane wide but also occupied by bicyclists and pedestrians, to undertake on the blind side. This can be exciting when the driver encounters a car trying to force its way into traffic from a side road or parking lot exit. The accepted response to that situation seems to be to swerve back into the nearest lane with horn blaring. Surrounding motorists thus know you are coming. We did this several times during our twenty minute trip.

I asked what happens when a pedestrian is hit as must surely frequently happen. Our leader confirmed that it does. But its not necessarily a bad thing, depending on how you handle it. You lie in the road, he said, until either the police come or the offending driver offers you enough money to leave before things get too complicated. Of course, if you’re dead or seriously injured that option doesn’t apply unless friends are willing to bear you off on a stretcher. The paperwork implications intrigue me. I know they have insurance companies here because I entertained the management team of a Shanghai-based company when we lived in Bermuda. I can’t imagine they could possibly make a profit underwriting auto insurance here unless they simply don’t pay claims. I must see if I can get hold of an English-language copy of a policy.

Strangely enough, considering the anarchy that prevails elsewhere on the roads, all drivers obey the traffic light signals. I saw nobody jump the lights at any of the intersections we went through on our way downtown. There is however little regard for pedestrians whether or not they are crossing on a ‘walk’ signal. Drivers, especially taxi drivers, simply thread their way through pedestrians on the crosswalks when making right hand turns. They do so without slowing down but courteously use their horns to alert crossers to get out of their way. Pedestrians accept this and simply dodge the oncoming cars as they thread their way through traffic while on the cross walk. Crossing the street is an adventure to avoid if possible. My feeling is that there are a finite number of times that you can cross a street safely in Shenyang. Each time you do cross brings you one event closer to your expiration date. So try to do all your shopping on the same side of the street, preferably in the same block.