M: Do you like traveling, Kathy?

W: I like traveling for pleasure to get places for vacation for instance.

But I don’t like traveling to work, waiting for buses, or…

M: Or getting stuck in traffic jams when you’re driving.

W: Exactly.

Every day as I leave my hotel room for work I feel like I am holding my life in my hands.

 In the UK, there’re generally 2 lanes for traffic, one in either direction. But here in Beijing, there seem to be 2 or 3 lanes each way on most of the roads.

Drivers swarm in or out of the lanes and make it difficult to me to feel safe when I cross the road. Not only this, but in major cities in the UK, it is illegal in many residential areas for cars to drive at more than 30 miles per hour. In Beijing, it seems to be a lot faster.

Cars must also stop at zebra crossings if a pedestrian is waiting. So I stand at the road waiting for cars to stop for me only to find that not one single driver does this.

My feeling of safety is not increased even when I am in a car.

Taxi drivers here seem more willing to risk moving into another lane full of speeding traffic if they see even the smallest gap.