Bravely to the Trees

Green leaves still cling bravely to the trees.  How much longer will they be there for?  Surely by December first, thirteen days from now, all save the pines will be properly denuded.  This view will go yellow to brown, to none swiftly now.  And the bitter wintertime will settle down upon us.  I was ready to snap a picture for you all of the fetching fall colors off to the side of Jing Mi Lu, but a massive green bus pulled up along side, obscuring the view.  I’m feeling smart as I left early this morning.  The traffic needn’t concern me.

I’ve already seen two accidents this morning.  Neither in real time, just the aftermath.  Coming home from the gym at 7:00AM traffic stopped inexplicable on the road between Capital Paradise and Gahood.  We paused for a bit, I was probably lost in my music.  Eventually the driver in front of me pulled out to the left to cut around the car stopped in front of him.  I followed suit, assuming the stationary vehicle had parked on a whim.  Passing by I could see that a motor scooter had been knocked over.  I saw the gloved handle bars that protect the driver in the winter and I thought about who this person was who's morning had been so undeniably interrupted. 

Just now, forty-five minutes later, in a cab not two hundred yards from the site of that accident, I came upon another collision.  This time its at the notorious four corner cross way that no one has seen fit to put a red light up at.  The raw opportunism of Chinese driving norms works until it doesn’t.  The shiny new gold mini van from the north had slammed into an on coming sedan from the west.  The van had got the worst of it.  A middle aged foreign woman was out photographing things.  So was a middle aged Chinese woman. 

The police must have a tally of the ten intersections in the city or in the district that have the most accidents.  Perhaps this is what guides the prioritization of traffic light investment.  I would assume that our crossroad is in-the-running for civic-wide crash volume distinction.  But in a city of twenty million the dangerous intersection list is likely a long one.  What is the worst intersection in the city? Is such information published?  Would you even be allowed to set up a live feed to stream the daily smash ups that must occur at the worse of the worst. 

If memory serves, the Black Panther Party was formed in part after there was one too many deaths on a particular intersection in Oakland.  Citizens took traffic direction into their own hands. Well heeled, but largely disenfranchised, this is ultimately a transient community.  We’re all more likely to keep flashing our lights and crossing our fingers every time we make our way through.