Cars, Traffic and other such related misclaneous stuff

Here are just a few random observations I've made, yes, again.

There's almost always a traffic jam on the highway here. The good thing is that there're these cool electronic displays that tells you exactly the condition of the highway and where the traffic jam is. It's done by color codes, along with a sentence explaining where the jam is (between which roads, not exits). Green is smooth sailing, yellow is slow traffic, orange is REALLY slow traffic, and then there is red, which is all hell's breaking loose and you'd better get as far away from the highway as you possibly can. Some days, however, the traffic is so bad or the fog is so thick that they actually close parts of the highway. What I don't understand is why they don't put some of those screens at the onramps of the highway, so you'll know not to bother entering the freeway if it's really bad up there. But I do like those display screens. The freeways in the States could use them!

Secondly, I realized that on top of unfamiliar brandname of cars (like QQ, Puegeot, Sino to name a few), there are also unfamiliar models of known-to-me car companies. Here are a few that I haven't heard in the States: VW has Polo, Santana (which is THE most popular car here, it's been around for more than 16 years), and Bora; Toyota has Vios; Buick has GLB, Excelle and LaCrosse; and Hyandai has Refine. Ever heard of any of them? I haven't. Apparently Honda Fit, which is new in the States for 2007, has been around for a few years in China now. They have both the sedan version and the hatchback version. Guess the high gas price has finally made it a selling point for Honda to bring it to the States.

Lastly, traffic sucks here. I'm amazed that there aren't accidents all over the places. At any given time, if there are 3 lanes, you can count on at least 4 cars, if not 5, driving side by side. At any given time, there's a car or two, or 10 honking at you because they are trying to sneak around you or cut into your lane. I think I mentioned this before, that the left turn cars just go and the cars going straight actually had to drive along the other side of the road to get around the left turn cars. The other amazing thing is that apparently traffic signs and one-way roads do not apply to bicycles and mopads, cuz you can ALWAYS see them go anytime, anywhere. I'm afraid to drive here! eek!!!

Oh, and because traffic is so bad here and there are so many cars here in the city, the officials made it a rule that cars with license plates from outside Shanghai are not allowed to drive on the highways during the week. This morning, there were at least 10 cars lining up one side of the freeway (the space there specifically for this purpose I think) that were pulled over by cops. They all had licenseplates from nearby provinces. The fine is 200RMB I believe, and they get to wait there until? I don't know, but these poor people. Of course there are signs supposedly plastered at all the onramps, though I haven't seen them yet.