The big trucks that are being talked about in this article from the New York Times scare the living bejesus out of China Car Times. These trucks are often used to take rubble away from building sites and are always over loaded with rocks as big as your head precariously dangling on the brim of the trucks bed, just ready to fall off and leave a hole in your car roof once the driver accelerates or brakes. Yes, we are scared to death of them, and with good reason!
GUANGZHOU, China — Every night, columns of hulking blue and red freight trucks invade China’s major cities with a reverberating roar of engines and dark clouds of diesel exhaust so thick it dims headlights.
By daybreak in this sprawling metropolis in southeastern China, residents near thoroughfares who leave their windows open overnight find their faces stiff with a dark layer of diesel soot.
After Mary Leung opens her tiny open-air shop along a major road soon after dawn, she must wipe the soot off her countertops and tables; the tiny yellow-and-olive bird that has kept her company is harder to clean.
Trucks are the mules of this country’s spectacularly expanding economy — ubiquitous and essential, yet highly noxious.
Trucks here burn diesel fuel contaminated with more than 130 times the pollution-causing sulfur that the United States allows in most diesel. While car sales in China are now growing even faster than truck sales, trucks are by far the largest source of street-level pollution.
You can read the article in full here.
Anyone of China Car Times readers ever driven on any major two lane highway at night with these trucks?
Jesus - that is scary.
Esp. when they dont have lights, dont indicate, have rocks and crap falling from have closed tailgates, driving like no brained maniacs and even worse in the city when they are working illegally (most citys have a 10pm curfew on construction)and the reultant accidents and deaths. I hear that Qingdao has been having record truck and bus related deaths weekly and that many are in the day. Mind you its still the worst city in China for the worst driving that i have driven in, and there are not many that I havent driven in, so can well understand asking poor old Jesus for help Ashley.
Begs the question aggain tho-where are the bloody cops!!!!!
I believe that construction is banned at a certain time, but the trucks are allowed to go on the roads at night to take away the construction waste.
Its an odd rule.
I dont find QD too bad for driving in to be honest, there is less crap on the roads (motorbikes, bicycles etc) but there are a lot of idiots in Audis/VW sedans who think they own the roads, not to mention the army/navy in Toyota Landcruisers………
I liked what Mr Zhang said.. A rise in fuel prices would put him out of business… however, he has a wife and kid at home and a second wife who goes on the road with him…. I always thought one Chinese woman was expensive enough, let alone two
oh yes, I can relate to that. When I was single I could get by on a sub 1000rmb a month life.
After marriage, there doesnt seem to be a sub 2000USD per month life.
does this count include Tibet and the tibet state of people , also does it include the people in Taiwan as taiwanese people have lots of cars that would be few million in china
No it doesnt, its the mainland, which would include Tibet.
I can relate to giving the trucks a wide berth. Never gave that kind of thing a thought until one day a brand new brick slid off a truck just off my front port quarter. Now I see all kinds of things that could (or have) fall off.
Now imagine changing your car, for a bicycle (as I sometimes do) and intensify that fear by a 10000 times!
Didn’t anyone tell you that living in the far east would be an adventure?? Until there is proper enforcement of the rules then nothing will change.
After they add that petrol tax and remove the toll charges it may see less heavy vehicles navigating the city streets. If they don’t need to go into the cities to save on the charges then they might be more efficient just driving straight onto the highways to get where they need to go…. I lost count of how many long distance buses I have been on that plod along in the city for 30 minutes just to get the cheaper toll charge.