Scooters

There's a mini crackdown on scooter-riding in Beijing — or more precisely, a tightening of existing rules which had never previously been enforced. It remains to be seen whether this is temporary.

Scooters

The young masked traffic cop
seemed almost apologetic, stepping
into the bike lane to wave me over.
I dodged him and waved back.
Days later, on the eve of a holiday,
cops waved from the curb, unable
to step into traffic. I pulled out
an old China tactic, pretending
to not notice. Meanwhile,
everyone else already seems to know:
today in Beijing, it’s illegal
to take passengers on your scooter.
Tomorrow, helmets will be required
(they say). No wonder the week before
everyone at stoplights stayed anchored,
unwilling to make waves, tempt trouble.
It’s all temporary, they know, a wind
blowing through. Only two weeks ago
red lights were optional.
Why are they like this? I ask
someone who should know.
A leader issued an order,
he replies, an answer as simple
and true as it gets.      I wonder
if the city’s short on money;
law can be a collection plate,
we should all be glad to pay
a tip for being able to live this way.
At least the penalty’s only 20 kuai,
we shrug. Today, just scooters.
            When the law did catch up,
on a sidewalk amid tourists, the cop
said in passing, Just to let you know,
brother, you can’t take people
on the back of your scooter.
He turned his back
before my passenger had a chance
to react, so we continued our separate ways,
us to a coffee shop with its Honduran beans
aged in whisky barrels, he —
well, I don’t know. It was a nice day.