Right of Way?

A well documented and reported fact about China is the number of people who use bicycles and other alternative forms of transportation for work and daily activities. On a typical day, mopeds, electric mopeds, Vespa type cycles, electric scooters, bicycles, powered bicycles, and other weird things I've never seen before, zoom by busily on their way down the highways and byways of the cities in the Middle Country.  Over time, the increased use of such vehicles began to clog the city streets -- to the point the authorities decided to build special traffic lanes and signals for the bikes and moped type scooters. This was done, of course, to help eliminate the chaos of shared roads, and to provide clear traffic lanes for cars, bikes, and pedestrians.  Except for one little hitch...no one stays in their designated traffic lanes and pretty much drive wherever they want. For example, at any given intersection, electric mopeds are honking at pedestrians, while being rushed along by cars and trucks.  There are cars in the bicycle lanes, bicycles in the car lanes, and people everywhere.  There are cars on the sidewalks, bicycles, scooters, and motorbikes on the sidewalks, people on the sidewalks, in the bike lanes, and in the street.  Sometimes there are traffic cops with flags directing the pedestrians, bikes, and cars, as the merge everywhere.  Oh yeah, there are buses too.  They are just in the street though.  The other day we were walking down the sidewalk when we heard a motor running behind us.  Turning around, we were not surprised to see a car stalking us down the pedestrian walkway.  Of course when he honked, I had to laugh.  There we were again, in the way of progress.