Ed, I read your letter to Mr. RoadShow in today's Mercury News. You compared the traffic here to the traffic in Shanghai, but either your letter was edited or I am missing the point you were trying to make. So what were you trying to say to Mr. RoadShow?

 

I read the same thing as well hehhe

-Marc

 

I can't say what I meant to say anymore since it was so long ago AND I don't seem to have a copy of what I sent from Shanghai. My overall observations about people's complaints about traffic here in the Bay Area vs. that in a city of nearly 20 million people though are likely irrelavant to our day to day lives, BUT we need to realize that in fact we have it pretty good here.
The road conditions in Shanghai are tough. Lanes switch positions through intersections, right turn lanes on the far left, left turn lanes in the middle, no right of way rules as we understand it, though it works for them since it is more efficient to ignore anything that is behind you.
On top of that, you add millions of bicyclists who do not understand any rules of traffic, adn the millions of pedestrians of the same back ground. Oh, did I mention the new drivers that have rose through the ranks of these uninformed masses of peds and bicyclists?
So, my point is, as much as we complain about traffic here, maybe we need to take perspective into it. Maybe we just drive too much and many not well enough. Oh well, who am I to comment right?

 

anyone have a copy (online or otherwise) of the letter as it was actually published?

 

Sorry, no longer have the paper copy. And I cannot find it at the sjmerdury.com site.

 

[QUOTE]Published in Dec. 3, 2003 San Jose Mercury News
Q: As a longtime reader and fan of your column, I wanted to add a perspective to the traffic situation in the Bay Area.