{"id":1963,"date":"2007-06-05T14:50:55","date_gmt":"2007-06-05T18:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=1963"},"modified":"2013-01-21T15:27:57","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T20:27:57","slug":"crosstown-traffic-in-toronto-and-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/06\/05\/crosstown-traffic-in-toronto-and-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Crosstown traffic: in Toronto and China"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

As I mentioned back in March<\/a>, I’ve been in possession of a car for the last few months and I’ve been using it for out-of-town trips, errands for an ill relative, and moving large objects to and from the Spacing office. I’ve been a cycling commuter and a dedicated transit rider for over ten years, so this new perspective of being behind the wheel has been interesting to say the least. Traffic rage has become a small part of my life and I’ve recently started to wonder how bad Toronto’s traffic problems are compared to other cities.<\/p>\n

A CBC feature<\/a> brought to light some of the traffic challenges faced around the world. Here in Canada, our death rate involving vehicles is going down, but soaring traffic accident rates in developing countries around the world rise when the wealth of the nation rises. ”When you have economic development, a human disaster often follows on the roads,” says Etienne Krug of the WHO. ”There’s a big drama going on of all these lives lost. People believed if they were going to be a more developed country, they needed more roads and cars, and the price to pay will be more fatalities. But we can show them this doesn’t have to be the case.”<\/p>\n

People who live in the developing world fare even worse. A recent report from the World Health Organization [WHO]<\/a> says vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death around the world among people aged between 10 and 24. Nearly 400,000 of those killed in road accidents every year are under 25, the report says.<\/p>\n

Many crashes in developing countries involve pedestrians and vehicles, or people travelling on group transport, such as a bus or a truck loaded with people going to market. As countries develop, the risk of road crashes increases. Poorer countries have lower accident death rates than middle-income nations like China or India.<\/p>\n

Those two countries account for close to half of the world’s deadly traffic accidents, despite having just a fraction of the private cars and other vehicles. Nearly 600 people are killed on the highways and back lanes of China every day, a number that has soared recently as the country’s white-hot economy spurs road construction and car ownership. As India races to catch up with China economically, road deaths there are surging ahead too, some 400 to 500 every day. In 2000, some five million Indians had a car. Now that number has more than doubled and is growing at close to 10 per cent a year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I went on YouTube and found a number of examples of the traffic chaos in Chinese cities. While I’ll still feel small pangs of traffic rage here in Toronto until I return my borrowed car, I’m a little relieved that I’m driving in a country where people moreorless obey the rules for the road. <\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Zhaoqing, China, with music soundtrack. 4 minutes.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

An American provides commentary from his hotel window, with cultural insensitivity. 7 minutes.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Shanghai, China. Cyclists will love this. 2:44 minutes.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Shanghai, China. Cyclists will cringe, especially as a truck kinda slows for a cyclist crossing an intersection, but the rider has to out-pedal the truck just to survive. 29 seconds.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Shantou, China. This street level video makes the chaos seem even more confounding. 37 seconds.<\/p>\n

<\/object>
\nHangzhou, China. Cyclists may like this as bikes and motorbikes seem to dominate this underpass. 24 seconds. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I mentioned back in March, I’ve been in possession of a car for the last few months and I’ve been using it for out-of-town trips, errands for an ill relative, and moving large objects to and from the Spacing office. I’ve been a cycling commuter and a dedicated transit rider for over ten years,Continue reading “Crosstown traffic: in Toronto and China”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1022,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,9],"tags":[5938,457,1401,1846,5935,965,5939,4202,393,21,1659,5937,19,30,3972,3407,5936],"class_list":["post-1963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-traffic","tag-borrowed-car","tag-canada","tag-car-ownership","tag-china","tag-crosstown","tag-cyclist","tag-etienne-krug","tag-hangzhou","tag-india","tag-other-cities","tag-shanghai","tag-shantou","tag-toronto","tag-video","tag-world-health-organization","tag-youtube","tag-zhaoqing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCrosstown traffic: in Toronto and China - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/06\/05\/crosstown-traffic-in-toronto-and-china\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Crosstown traffic: in Toronto and China - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As I mentioned back in March, I’ve been in possession of a car for the last few months and I’ve been using it for out-of-town trips, errands for an ill relative, and moving large objects to and from the Spacing office. 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