Road Rage

Wednesday, October 28, as I rode the bus to visit the Morrison family I experienced an example of road rage here in China. As difficult as driving becomes on these crowded streets, drivers are pretty tolerant. But this morning was different. Traffic was heavy and we had just pulled out from a bus stop, which was offset from the main road. In some places there is a special lane for bikes, scooters and buses separated by an island. This special lane ended at this bus stop and became the sidewalk ahead of us. Our goal was to pull out and merge into the solid line of traffic going by. Out of nowhere, a van managed to get in between the line of traffic and the bus and was determined to play chicken with the bus driver and edge him out. The two crept forward, getting closer and closer together. The line of traffic got tighter and tighter, determined not to let the van in. Forward progress came to a stop when the van and the bus came to the curb where the sidewalk started. At that point the bus driver stuck his head out the window and yelled at the van driver. The van driver seemed to panic and drove over the curb and down the sidewalk, forcing everyone to find cover. At this point the unbelievable happened. The bus driver drives over the curb onto the sidewalk and pursues the van. We were just inches from the row of trees and the store fronts. When the van finally came to an alley it turned right to get away from the bus. The bus jumped the curb and continued on down the sidewalk to the next alley where it pulled out to again try to merge into traffic. At this point someone on the bus yelled to open the door. Since the driver was stopped, he did and half of the passengers got off. Believe me, we were scared at this point. The bus driver happen to be just a few inches ahead of a car and managed to force his way into the traffic and we were off.

Normally I am very calm on bus rides. Heavy traffic and close driving doesn't seem to bother me. I guess I have gotten used to it because we seem to get to our designation safely, but today was different. I was in the front bus seat to the right of the driver and had a clear view of what was happening. This experience shook me up a little.

That night on my way back I had just the opposite experience. The bus driver was quite laid back and could care less if others were trying to run him off the road. He had music playing in the bus and when passengers got on he would turn up the lights inside the bus. At bus stops he would even wait some after passengers loaded for passengers to get off busses behind him to come up to his bus to get on as transfers. As we rode along passengers were quietly talking, listening to the music and relaxing. It was indeed a pleasure being a passenger on his bus. In one day I experienced both extremes. Maybe a little reminder of hell and heaven.