The streets are full of taxis. So far I have ridden in four taxis--to the clinic and back, and after that to dinner and back. I have not waited so much as two minutes for a taxi. (However, I have spent many minutes waiting inside a taxi in traffic!)
Many of the taxis are new. On the trip to the clinic, I rode in a new Hyundai Elantra.
Drivers here at first seem crazy. Right-of-way is determined by the size of your vehicle, and pedestrians come last. Right turn on red is permitted without stopping. Aggressive lane-changing is the norm. Traffic signs and lights are sometimes treated as mere suggestions. I have sometimes seen drivers (not ours) drive down the left side of the street if the right side was full and the left side was empty. Yet we have seen very few accidents; two that I can recall.
All the vehicles I have seen here are standard shift, even the vans. One of our Chinese hosts commented that the combination of standard shift and the driving conditions here make the driver stay alert, and become a better driver; with automatic shift, the driver becomes lazy, and a poorer driver. I had a standard shift car as a young man, and this comment brought back memories of when driving was fun. All of the drivers we have had, both van and taxi drivers, have been excellent drivers. I felt perfectly safe riding with them. And I think they are having fun.
