Get On The Bus Gus

Getting to any destination is always part of the experience.  Our trip to the Terracotta Warriors had us riding a public transport bus for about and hour from the Xi'an city center.  Tara and Riley jumped right into the front seat and brought mom and dad along.  I was able to get a front row view in the workaday life of our street pilot.  Most of the trip was on a 6 lane highway that was divided in many sections.  Today we rode with Young Man.

Every bus, no matter how tired it may be, is careful to provide headrest covers on all of the seat tops.  This seemingly nice amenity rapidly loses it luster when you realize that those pieces of cloth may have been in place since the bus rolled off the assembly line and are almost as dirty as the floor.  I am sure that they get a periodic washing, maybe annually.

Looking out the front window you gain an appciation for all of the road hazards that are present.  From vehicles coming at you sometimes in the rightmost of your lanes, sometimes in the leftmost of your lanes.  To people in various stages of crossing these 6 lanes.  The vehicles are sometimes pinned to the stripped divider lines whose purpose seems less to divide the road and more as a navigational device to center the vehicle over.

At one point there were about 300 yards of speed bumps in our lane, presumably placed there for good reason.  This was not the understanding of our captain who decisively swerved into an oncoming traffic lane, the highway was not divided at this point, and then ducked in at the last second, flew across the 3 lanes going his direction all the way over to the shoulder where we cleared the remaining speed bumps then hopped back into a legitimate lane.  This is a public bus if you don't recall

Another curiosity is the entrepreneurial efforts of the bus hostess.  Every bus seems to have a woman that is acting as first mate and running the ship as we hurl, albeit slowly, down the highway.  This bus was designated for the trip between Xi'an and the Terracotta Warriors as evidenced by the lettering on its side.  Between when the wheels first rolled and its final stop the bus made many stops.  Usually by pulling off the road abruptly and honking the horn like mad.  Sometimes folks would jump on, when they did they would pay and grab a seat if they could, then jump off before the Warriors.  Our guide said that it is a side business for the bus driver and his assistant.  These are all unscheduled stops and they pocket the money.

In China you don't almost have accidents, your accident is always in progress, you are simply waiting for it to end.  There are no road rules as evidenced by traffic behavior, only suggestions.  The one thing that seems to bring vehicular order are the few and far between photo radar stations.

The traffic lights have countdown timers to tell you the remaining seconds on the light that you are currently obeying.  Our bus commander did stop at these.

Here are a few cars nearly two lanes into oncoming traffic passing a bus which is beginning to pass a little truck.  The right lane appears to be the better option by far.

Here is the aforementioned bus passing a little truck in the oncoming traffic lane while right lane still looks like the better option.

Oh, right lane is being used by a three wheeler headed in wrong direction.

Car passing bus in a turn while nearing the top of a small hill.  Double Blind.  Right lane looks fine to me.

While I have not yet seen the entirety of the method in the madness, I am really starting to appreciate the freedom of the roads here.  Road users are able to just do what they need to do and if you do it at the right speed and with your horn loudly enough everything seems to work out.  I can not imagine how a Chinese road schooled driver could not have innumerable accidents if they ever attempted the mean streets of America.