ADS-B in Shenzhen, China

[Jerry Pressley]

I spend some time in  China and Shenzhen is their showcase city.  They show to outsiders how modern it is and how clean.  The latest there is the camera system mounted everywhere.  If a local crosses the street on a red light there is a screen showing their identity and the violation and how much they owe the government.   Done with face recognition as every Chinese is required to have id card with all information.  They say they can locate anyone in the city that is outside within 7 minutes. The government says it is solely for deterring crime in the city. UH huh Uh huh.   One of my friends says it would not work here because all Americans look the same.  ADS_B is a first baby step toward same here.

[Hank]

Not quite so good. Saw one scooter stopped by police yesterday (Wednesday)for apparently not wearing his helmet; my Chinese associate said he would get a lecture and spend hours holding a sign beside the road. 

Meanwhile, more than a dozen helmetless scooters whizzed past . . . .

Even here in Shenzhen, luck is important!!

Edited April 5, 2018 by Hank

[neilpilot]

A pedestrian needs to stay alert, especially when traffic is heavy. Those scooters will exit the street onto the sidewalk, especially at busy intersections.

[EricJ]

4 hours ago, neilpilot said:

A pedestrian needs to stay alert, especially when traffic is heavy. Those scooters will exit the street onto the sidewalk, especially at busy intersections.

I very nearly got flattened by a city bus in Shanghai.   We were in a median on a busy street, the crosswalk symbol changed to the walking figure and as I was about to step into the crosswalk I noticed a bus in my peripheral vision hauling the mail toward me.   Was probably doing 50mph.   I stopped, and a colleague next to me said he stopped only because I stopped, as he hadn't seen the bus.   It passed about a foot or two in front of me.

I never could figure out the logic of the crosswalk signs there, but the locals apparently had some secret as they seemed to know when you could actually cross the street or not, which didn't seem to correlate with any of the signage.

Those public cams will be good for replaying the demise of foreigners who succumb to the unfamiliar street etiquette.   Those sorts of public cams have been all over Europe for a long time.

As for ADS-B, I think it's already making a big difference in safety and I'm glad for that.

[gsxrpilot]

For those of you with Netflix, Trevor Noah does a comedy special on Netflix where he talks about using crosswalks in NYC. I'm not a huge Trevor Noah fan, but this was one of the funniest things I've seen.