Delightfully harmonious

The first day I was here I was heading into work and when the sidewalk was full of random used furniture and bricks we simply headed into the street. This kind of confused me because people don't often walk in the streets in Chicago. I started paying attention and here's what I find.

I find that the traffic in Beijing is a continuous harmony between the bicyclists, the taxis, and the people. There are the same traffic laws for the cars that we have, but I find that they are only obeyed most of the time and never by the bicyclists. In addition to that streets quickly become sidewalks whenever the sidewalk is full with street vendors and the carts full of fruit that they carry with them. Now, with the bicyclists and the pedestrians in the streets, a two way street will easily be a one way street. A lot of honking later there are no accidents and everything always seems to work out (not to mention the one way streets that are almost always used as two way streets). In Chicago, the moment a bicyclist appears in the wrong spot or a car sticks it's nose out too far hoping to make a left turn...ACCIDENT! I've only seen one accident in the 6 weeks I've lived here. It's sort of amazing.

As a bicyclist navigating the streets of Beijing I find that it's best to move slowly into traffic heading in the direction you want to go. Hopefully the cars see you and will slow down and let you in. Essentially everyone is always paying attention to avoid near death experiences of which I've had a few.

Quick note on Pollution in Beijing

I was thinking about comparing the lung cancer rates due to pollution in China to the lung cancer rates in the US due to pollution so I could try and figure out how much the poor air quality actually affects DALYs. After a quick google search I decided that that was probably an impossible feat even if the data were out there because of so many ifs in the reporting. Firstly, I'm sure that most cancers in China go unreported (and probably in the US too) because so much of the country is developing
without access to adequate health care. Secondly, more people in China smoke
than in any other part of the world (it's probably not so good for my second hand smoker's lungs) so the rate of lung cancer is going to be higher than the US regardless of pollution. Where's Poland's anti-smoking campaigns when we need them? Today the US epa lists the pollution as unhealthy but we could see the nearby buildings so everyone around me says it's a good day. Yesterday was a bad day, It was miserable to play frisbee in...in 95 degree heat on top of it. Out of curiosity I just looked up what the particulate matter level is for Chicago. I mean, it can't be so good, we allow trucks to drive around during all hours (in Beijing they are only allowed in the city at night), there are buses emitting particulate matter all day and night, and industry still happens there even if it's not at the level of Beijing industry. For a quick comparison: EPA says that Chicago is <50 which is an actual good value while Beijing averaged at 166 "unhealthy" for the day. Soon environmental standards will take control here I hope...although that still won't solve the smoking problem.