Bus Crash

My bus driver is most aggressive driver I have ever been in a car with. He darts in and out of the traffic of bikes, cars and pedestrians like he was behind the wheel of a ferarri. Except he is not driving a ferarri. He is driving a bus.

On top of his darting he also uses the size of the bus to his advantage. There is no right of way in China, the rule is simply get in front of the other person. So left hand turns crossing traffic are started by one person bravely piloting their car into oncoming traffic, forcing it to stop, and then the 15 cars behind the lead car who progressively peel into their left hand turn earlier and earlier so that oncoming traffic must let them by. My bus driver will often pass 6 stopped cars to make sure that gets in behind the courageous car that has for a moment stopped the onslaught of oncoming traffic.

Seeing as how we almost mowed down 3 bikers on friday it seemed only a matter of time before some sort of traffic altercation occurred. You must also understand that on top of most drivers behaving in exactly the same fashion their are countless bikers in the streets and these people ride RIGHT in front of these busses, expecting them to stop. Yet road rage is almost non-existent. When everyone breaks the rules, no one really cares anymore.

Today on the way home are bus clipped the side of another bus waking me sharply from my afternoon nap. I looked up to see what happened as traffic stopped both busses. My driver jumped out and proceeded to yell at the very jovial looking driver of the other bus. The other driver simply laughed and walked up to a back bus window, where someone handed him a handful of cash. The money was excepted by our driver who got back on the bus, said a few words and then started moving again with traffic. The whole exchange took less then a minute. And within two minutes we were back into city streets scattering bikers and pedestrians like flies from a watermelon.