Beware of the Motorbike

Shanghai is China's largest city, but it does have room to expand unlike Hong Kong or New York. There's not that claustrophobic density or fight for space.  The city spreads out wide and low with a matrix of alleyways and unmapped side streets.  Almost every road is tree-lined and they shed giant leaves that paper the ground as Fall winds down.  The pleasant tri-ling of bicycle bells as people pedal past add to the charm. The city is actually rather peaceful on weekends with the backdrop of period French architecture and older residents that gather to chat on doorsteps. You begin to forget where you are for a moment as you fantasize about the stories this city must have during the 1920s and it's European occupation.

And then, there comes the motorbike---menace of the streets. It obeys no traffic laws. Red light, one-way street, mother and child in the middle of the crosswalk---the motorbike does not care.  I've always known that traffic is crazy in China, but at least you can see and hear cars and they obey the traffic laws.  Plus, usually they're inclined to honk.  Bicycles are a little trickier to detect, but they don't go that fast and won't kill you. Motorbikes however are a cross-breed of the car and the bike that alternate between roads and sidewalks like an indecisive Mario Kart player.  They constantly zip through intersections long after everything else has stopped or travel against the flow of traffic.  I am terrified of them because they will severely injure, possibly kill, and almost always ruin my weekend musings around Shanghai.