Are Taxi Drivers in China Idiots or Brilliant?

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Are Taxi Drivers in China Idiots or Brilliant?

Written by Robert Vance on August 27, 2008 – 12:55 pm

Just last week a taxi that I was in made a sharp U-turn right into oncoming traffic and we narrowly avoided being rear ended by a fast approaching white sedan which neither slowed down or changed lanes to avoid collision. Stupid idiot, I thought to myself about my taxi driver who looked neither shaken or sorry that he had made such a bad decision. In fact, I thought I detected a wicked smile on his face as if he enjoyed playing around with the lives of his passengers and enraging other drivers on the road. That was not all. For the next ten minutes my driver swerved in and out of rush hour traffic at a harrowing speed, avoiding red lights by doing more U-turns, all the while talking on his cell phone. It was with great relief that I finally threw 10 RMB at him and stepped out of the taxi 20 minutes later.

Later in the day, as I was walking home from work, I witnessed a bicycle rider darting out in front of a speeding taxi. The taxi driver maneuvered the vehicle quickly to the left barely missing the back tire of the bicycle. Because of the taxi driver’s focus on the road and his quick reflexes, the biker (who was a stupid idiot this time in my opinion) was able to along his or her merry way. For once, I admired the taxi driver’s skill and was thankful that I was spared from witnessing a horrible tragedy.

The fact is, I used to think that taxi drivers in China were reckless bimbos who could care less whether or not their passengers arrived to their destination in one piece. Now I am not so sure. The more time that I spend cruising China’s highways and biways, the more that I have come to realize that many taxi drivers possess a skill that many other drivers on the road do not have; they know how to drive. Say what you want about their speed and quick and seemingly reckless maneuvers, the majority of these guys know what they’re doing on the road. They have quick reflexes and they usually pay very close attention to what is happening around them. Often, the way that they drive directly reflects the way that other Chinese people on the road, many of which either bribed their way through driving school or are driving without a license, are maneuvering their vehicles.

With that said, I always fasten my seatbelt when I jump inside a taxi. After all, you have to expect the unexpected to happen on the roads in China. It’s a jungle out there.

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