It's been four months now without a car and while I readily admit that I miss driving, I'm also in no hurry to learn to drive "Shanghainese". Taxi rides are the worst - most of the time we are flying through the traffic, utilizing every unoccupied space (including sidewalks, bike paths and even the opposite lanes) while uncontrollably sliding inside (the doors have a tendency of opening unexpectedly) without any seatbelts. No one has ever seen or heard of booster seats.

So yesterday as we were running errands and got caught in a traffic jam (electricity was out in that part of town and so were the traffic lights), I took advantage of David's cellphone and snapped a few pictures. First one captures the various vehicles trying to inch their way through the intersection.(Three lanes to four directions). Needless to say it was a bit slow going.

Second picture; take a look at the sign above and how you are supposed to line up depending if you are going straight or taking a right. This is not the only intersection this kind of lane division is in place. The curious thing is, it works. How? I'm not sure. But every time we pass through one, I see no accidents or even near misses. So I think I need to stay off the steering wheel until I get this figured out...