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Hate traffic jams? The Chinese pay people to sit it out!

Hate traffic jams? The Chinese pay people to sit it out!

CheeJun

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The way people cope with traffic jams has been evolving over the years. In really bad ones, some people turn of their engines get out of the car and have some coffee. But in China, it has become a business opportunity.

 

Chinese motorists can now hire people to sit in jams for them while they are sent by a substitute driver to their destination on motorbikes. And while they are weaving their way through the traffic jam on a bike, a man sits in their car and drives it to your workplace. This unusual service is for "those with urgent dates or business meetings to go to, and those who have flights to catch and can't afford to wait in a traffic jam for too long," says the company's owner, Huang Xizhong, who operates in the central city of Wuhan.

 

The business seems to be catching on as some have also sprouted in the eastern city of Jinan. There is of course high demand in the country's capital, Beijing, but because of the motorcycle laws on the expressways, the businesses can't operate there.

 

To date, China's traffic jams have hit the headlines last year when a jam stretched for more than 100km on an expressway leading to Beijing, and the country is tied with Mexico for the worst traffic jams in the world.




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