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A bizarre local experiment in Shanghai, which saw two of the city's biggest adversaries swap jobs for five days, comes to an end today with both groups expressing new found respect for their former "sworn enemies."
The innovate scheme, which sounds more like the plot of a Hollywood move than an act of local government, saw 10 taxi drivers spend this week patrolling traffic while 100 traffic cops hopped behind the wheels of Dazhong taxis for a day each to see how the other half lives.
The result was a bit like watching the Road Runner turn around and chase Wile E. Coyote -- minus the anvils and explosive, of course.
The cabbies-turned-cops gave out tickets to their former colleagues, while the cops-turned-taxi drivers picked up a few fines of their own.
"I realized for the first time that it's really difficult to keep traffic moving smoothly," said Tong Zhishi, a Dazhong cab driver, who spent the last few days patrolling an intersection in Hongkou District.
"Policemen have to stand on the dusty, noisy roads, shouting and even running after violators," he said.
On his first day as a "traffic cop," Tong stopped a taxi driver for pulling over to pick up a passenger at an improper section of the road -- a minor violation that occurs all the time in the city.
"I told him that the traffic would be terrible if everyone acted the same way he did," said Tong, who confesses to breaking the same rule on occasion.
The experienced cab driver said many of his counterparts have to stop in the middle of a road if they want to make a living. Sometimes they change lanes suddenly to pick up passengers on the street.
"The two violations are most often seen among cab drivers because we're unwilling to miss any customers due to slack business," said Tong.
Cops and cabbies are natural enemies in the city, as taxi drivers are often pulled over and fined. Drivers often complain they don't understand why local police are so "mean," according to Dong Jiyuan, an official with Dazhong Taxi.
The job swap was just as frustrating for the cops-turned-cabbies.
"After my experiencing, I realized that it is not easy to earn a living driving a taxi," said Tang Weijia, a police officer from Hongkou District, who describes himself as a failed cab driver.
During his day behind the wheel, Tang only earned 105 yuan (US$12.6), far less than the 500 yuan (US$60) needed to make a decent living after paying a rental fee to the taxi company.
"I was fined by my counterparts for illegal parking," Tang admitted sheepishly. "At the time, I was in a hurry to find a toilet."
As bad as his experience was, Tang says it was a worthwhile experiment.
"I got to understand cabbies more, and we may work together to make our city's traffic condition better."
The job swapping between cops and cabbies is but one of many experiments and measures that have been tried out in the past few weeks to alleviate crippling traffic jams in the city.
Other measures include mobilizing more than 3,000 volunteers to help keep order at busy intersections, urging government officials to take public transportation, encouraging local residents to stop jaywalking and, of course, investing more money in roads.
(eastday.com January 17, 2003)
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