Shanghai traffic conforms to more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules.

A common occurrence in Shanghai traffic: exceptions to the rule.

Hector Barbossa would feel right at home at the helm of Shanghai taxicab.

Red light means stop, red and yellow lights together mean "cautiously" proceed, green means go, two green lights mean go twice as fast (?), arrow pointing left means turn left, and all arrows pointing in one direction mean one way – sort of.

There is honking, sudden knee jerk reaction and gridlock. You see some drivers (usually in German imports) taking to sidewalks when they are within a block of their destination and traffic is at a standstill. Like most large cities buses rule relatively unchallenged except by a few fearless moped and cargo bike pilots.

On the surface it seems like the stuff bad ethnic jokes and a western driver's nightmares are made of. To be fair it is something very different and actually quite amazing to be in the midst of. 

I suppose it comes from centuries of living in the most populous place on earth and a deep respect for another individual's personal space. I mean when you apply the singular and simple common courtesy of not violating one's space (however small) to 22 million people – you get the idea. There is an intellect and rhythm that could only come from millennia of hyper-coexistence.

The people in Shanghai are not overly aggressive and in fact pride themselves in being a very placid and peace loving society. In many instances when you expect to see road rage it's non-existent. The intellect accompanying this demeanor is based on simple principles of physics – only one mass can occupy a single space at any given time. It seems to be a concept lost on American drivers (I count myself foremost among the ranks). As a matter of fact, after being in Shanghai for over a month now, my daughter and I recently witnessed a minor fender bender. She thought for a moment and said, "It's hard to believe that's the first accident we've seen". The more I thought about it she was right. 

I've been in countless cabs where I was sure we were going to pull a "Ricky Bobby" and trade some paint, sheet metal and maybe even a body part or two, only to realize the drivers had it all under control. How they knew a buffer of about three millimeters existed before impact escapes me and yet somehow they knew. I'm convinced it has nothing to do with the five senses we all possess because some of the purveyors of this taxi-saturated universe have thicker glasses than I do.

My hypothesis is that the people of Shanghai have transcended the state of traffic congestion by replacing it with a simple "school" of thought – "school" as in school of fish. Think about it for a minute. What is more densely populated than a school of fish? There are thousands, even tens of thousands of individuals in a very compact space all moving in unison and yet all independently moving.

When was the last time you saw two fish collide?

It isn't quite as peaceful as Koi floating effortlessly about in a lily pad laden pond but it's far more successful than the rush hours you might find, say in Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and New York – all happening simultaneously in one place.

Wikipedia has a more in depth and informative analysis on the Chinese Rules of the road @

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rules_of_the_road_in_the_People's_Republic_of_China