In China, they have to learn to drive like ass. In Boston, driving like ass requires almost no training at all.

Photo courtesy of www.chinadriversexam.blogspot.com 

Peter Hessler’s article in the November 26 New Yorker about his driving experiences in China was closely studied by the cultural research group at drivinglikeass.com. Hessler tells us that China has only 3% of the world’s vehicles and yet accounts for 21% of the world’s traffic fatalities. Knowing this raised hopes here at DLA that, in China, we had found a driving populace possibly more reprobate than that of Boston, the similarities to which might provide the basis for exciting new comparisons and insights.

In China, he tells us, such things as turn signals, windshield wipers, and headlights are considered to be distractions to the typical motorist. That sounded like Boston. And, in China, honking is a critical driving skill and, to some extent, mirrors the Chinese language itself with different tonal qualities and meanings. Well, that’s not so different than Boston, although in Boston, honking lacks the richness of Chinese language and most honking translates as some variation of “Moveyerass!” or “Upyers!” or “Moveyerass upyers!”

China, like many developing countries, is a laboratory for the concept of “leapfrogging development:” emergent capitalism and rising incomes enable markets to forsake the usual evolutionary process and jump immediately to the latest and greatest of whatever. Because China does not have a driving legacy—the penetration of cars per thousand people is similar to that of the United States in 1915…about 28—it has been suggested that the driving behaviors of the Chinese may not be innate…they must be learned.

Photo courtesy of www.chinadriversexam.blogspot.com

Hessler explores that learning process by observing a driving school, completion of which is a requirement for all drivers’ license applicants. Under the guidance of Coach Tang, students spent 10 days on the parking range (practicing opening the door, unscrewing the gas cap, gunning engines (in gear) with parking brakes set, and driving on raised plank “bridges”) and another 10 days of practical experience on the road which, it seemed to Hessler, consisted largely of practicing the various honking phonemes. During the road segment, the class takes a break each day for lunch during which everyone drinks beer—sometimes to the point of complete inebriation, he is told—before heading out on the road again.

“Throughout the course there had been no variables, no emphasis on responding to situations. Instead, students learned and rehearsed a small number of set pieces which they would later combine and apply to city driving.”

After much honking and rehearsing improbable maneuvers, the class is ready to be licensed. The written exam questions lead Hessler to conclude that driving instruction in China:

“…didn’t teach you how to drive; it taught you how people drove.”

 
Photo courtesy of www.chinadriversexam.blogspot.com

Ah-Ha! They were being taught to drive like ass. But what can that tell us about driving behavior in Massachusetts where driving instruction is so heavily weighted towards experience, safety, and courtesy and, clearly, we seem to learn to drive like ass all on our own?

Many driving theorists believe that part of the process is the complicated set of negative and positive reinforcements meted out by driving authorities, i.e., a failure to negatively reward ass-like driving and a failure to positively reward “non ass-like driving.”

The reluctance of police to issue speeding tickets, enforce red light or cross-walk violations, or even to “tsk-tsk” bad driving is well documented in this state.

DLA has been studying the role that a lack of positive reinforcement may play in driving behavior. Here is an example story from the drivinglikeass.com case study archives:

“I accompanied my daughter when she went to the RMV to take her road test. When the state trooper (road tests are now administered by civilian employees of the RMV) emerged from the office and approached our car he asked me, “Are you coming along for the ride?” Not having imagined that such a thing would be permissible, I looked at my daughter who, almost ready to faint anyway, nodded desperately. We all hopped in and went around the block, made a three-point turn on some empty side street, didn’t parallel park, and returned to the RMV less than five minutes after starting the car. During those five minutes, having seen my son’s hockey stick in the back seat, the trooper told me about his son’s Mites team, their trip to a tournament in Falmouth, and their trouble getting ice time with only occasional asides (“turn left”, “turn right”) to my daughter, keeping eye contact with me the entire time. She passed.”

As a result, after six months of classroom and on-road instruction, it becomes immediately apparent to every sweaty-palmed road test taker that the licensing authorities seem to be not in the least interested in whether that experience can be put to use on the state’s roadways. Research suggests this discolouring plants the seeds for a deep ambivalence within the driving psyche and interferes with the driver’s ability to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable driving behavior which, of course, is the tell-tale sign of psychosis.

At least in China, they drive the way they are taught.