Excellent report from Al Jazeera:
The driving school looks like one that China Car Times attended when he was just a wee whipper snapper, except we didn’t have the luxury of learning in a VW Santana, we had the dreaded Citroen ZX.
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Ash are you telling us that you learnt to drive in China?
Yes!
If one is to work in the Chinese Auto Industry, you must understand it from the ground up!
It was by far, one of the hardest series of exams I have ever taken, and yet it never prepared me for taking on the road system!
Back a few years ago when I inquired about getting a license, I would have had to take the full course, and that was after passing the written exam and I was not allowed to have an interpreter as I might cheat!!!
.
Things are better now as you only have to take the written exam and they will tell you the answers.
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But, I never got around to it.
That’s assuming you’ve got a license in another country! Plus I think you need to have had it for a certain number of years (if my memory serves me correctly, 3). I just took my license and translation plus some documents, and was then given a hearing and sight test. I was then asked when I wanted to do my theory test. At the same time I was issued with a sheet of the questions, answer choices and the correct answers. I then had to go back and do my test on computer in English. I was then issued with my Chinese license.
Do chinese road accident deaths got to do anything with the poor safety measures in majority of its vehicles?
I would say there are a variety of reasons. Poor safety measures is one of them both from the hardware and software! Many people do not wear seatbelts and allow the kids to treat the car as a bouncy castle. Has anyone ever seen a child seat in China? Most cars have few airbags and limited crash safety.
Then there is the question of the driving license. Many people probably don’t have one, paid someone else to take the test for them or have a fake license. I haven’t taken the practical test but the anectodal stories I’ve heard seem to say it doesn’t prepare you that well for real driving.
Compounding this is the poor driving skills of many plus often a kamikaze attitude to traffic by cyclists, moped riders and pedestrians.
Ash, you are still luckier than me. I was instructed in a 20 year old FAW truck! There was no PAS, so I needed to steer the wheel 3 rounds to make a turn!
But that was in 2002.
where you studying for a truck license???
ZX was 2.5 turns to turn left/right!
The number is bad and there are all sorts of issues but from the statistic point of view, population and the total number of vehicles of a country shall be put into consideration as well.
Total Road Deaths in the USA (google)
42,196 - 2001
43,005 - 2002
42,884 - 2003
42,636 - 2004
Hi Ash, I took my drivers test in a Wuling Minivan in LiuZhou city back in 2001. The test went fine and while the examiner was writing up his report I asked him if I had passed or failed. He told me I had passed but that he had some concerns with my driving. When I asked him what his concerns were he told me that i did not use the horn enough. Coming from the UK where we are too polite to use the horn except in anger. I nearly died laughing when the examiner told me I need to use it more.
Patrick,
In China, I get good value for money out of my horn! Its even got dirty where my hand is continually pressed against it
I read that GM make their horns to 10 times the standard in China or something because of their more frequent use.