Roxana

Dear Traffic Courtesy,

With so many BMWs, Mercedes Benzs and Audis driving around, you’d think you would make yourself more present. Unfortunately, during my two weeks in Beijing, that was not the case. There were numerous times when I thought that I wasn’t going to make it alive to the other side of the street. With so much honking, so many cars and so many people checking their cell phones, it was hard to cross the street in the safest way possible. I would constantly reflect and compare this traffic culture to the one we have cultivated in the United States. In the U.S., pedestrians have the right of way. In China, pedestrians have to be aggressive. Despite this commotion, I never once saw an accident while I was there. I think it’d be interesting to research the rate of car accidents in Beijing, especially since the city has over 1 million vehicles. Being that I study public health, I couldn’t help but think about this issue with such mindset. Most, if not all people, driving bikes and motorbikes do not wear helmets. In addition, the few instances in which I was on a taxi, I noticed that the driver did not wear a seatbelt. This caused me to think logically and outside the box about the possible negative outcomes this may have on motor vehicle accidents in China. While this may have slightly derailed me off my original intended purpose of writing to traffic courtesy, I think that all these factors are of a greater population health concern. In addition to working on traffic courtesy, I think that Beijing has a lot of work to do to regulate their current safety measurements.

Sincerely,

Roxana, a concerned public health student