CHINESE CARMAGEDDON

Holy Chinese New Year Batman!!!

50 fucking lanes of traffic???

Merging into 20 lanes of traffic???

This makes my daily commute seem like a drive in the park.

I’ll just keep this visual in my mind whenever someone cuts me off on the Schuylkill.

Via MSN

Traffic after the holidays tend to be pretty awful. But China may have just turned every driver’s worst nightmare into reality as hundreds of millions of people headed home at the end of a Golden Week, a week-long national holiday.

Thousands of motorists found themselves stranded on Tuesday in what looks from above like a 50-lane parking lot on the G4 Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau Expressway, one of the country’s busiest roads. Some are dubbing the traffic jam a “carpocalypse,” while others are calling it “carmageddon.”

Though foggy weather may have played a role, the real culprit is a new checkpoint that forces traffic to merge from 50 lanes down to just 20, according to The People’s Daily. Traffic was reportedly backed up for hours.

China is no stranger to these ridiculous traffic jams, especially on national highways. In 2010, gridlock spanning more than 74 miles on the stretch between the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Beijing left drivers with nowhere to go for a staggering 12 days. That time blame fell on everything from road construction to broken down cars and fender-benders.

People played cards to pass the time while nearby vendors took the opportunity to sell food and water at premium prices. “If you said ‘no’ or complained about the price they threaten to break your [wind]shields,” one driver told the Inner Mongolia Morning Post.

In 2012, the government’s decision to grant free road travel during the same national holiday turned 24 motorways in 16 provinces into a massive parking lot with more than 85 million people stuck in their cars.

Reuters/China Daily

Reuters/China Daily


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Iska Waran
Iska Waran

It looks like a toll road. Toll roads are stupid. They need more guns to encourage civility.

Dutchman

What a bunch of fucking morons.

bb

Hell ,I thought LA traffic was bad.Another reason to stay away from that country.

bruce
bruce

That’s not China. That’s looking north over one of the smaller gaps in the US – Mexico border.

On the red structure that spans the road the signs say “Free Shit”, “This lane for jobs that pay up to $4.95 per hour tax free”,”Take back your Land”, and .”Welcome new Democrat Voters”.

Phil from Oz
Phil from Oz

Reminds me of a similar (but MUCH smaller scale) traffic seize-up in Devon, UK. Right at the start of Easter, around 1972, and the Southbound traffic from Exeter to Plymouth was stationary along the entire length of the A38 (I was heading North fortunately!)

This was the pre-RV era, but many families owned Camper Vans (e.g.. Volkswagen Combi), and there were more than a few camped out on the central reservation, many complete with portable TVs, making the best of a bad deal!

“Good Easter Break?? Yes – spent it camped out on the A38 5 miles south of the Newton Abbot turn-off!” 🙂 🙂

Hope@ZeroKelvin
Hope@ZeroKelvin

Are these ghost people driving to the ghost cities?

kokoda
kokoda

What happened to their super-duper mass transportation systems – did they build their high speed rail system in outer Mongolia?

Monger
Monger

wonder how many committed suicide in that line. that 2012 date, 85 million people ? that sir is batshit crazy

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