>
Borrowing the lane refers to a an act in which a driver goes into the opposite lane and opposing traffic stops to let that person “borrow” the lane until they decide the time is right to get back in their own.
I first heard of it awhile ago, and while it drastically differs from Western driving, I believed it was legal.
Yesterday I found out differently.
There is a system of buses that takes students and staff from the South Lake Campus to the The New Campus, or the Sunshine Campus, so-called due to its lack of shade. On the bus yesterday to my afternoon classes, we approached an overpass.
The driver decided to borrow the lane beneath the overpass. Never mind the multitude of traffic. He jumped in and we slowed. Cars honked and stopped. A bus narrowly avoided us, its driver offering a few words in Chinese out his window. Even in that harsh Wuhan accent, he didn’t sound pleased.
We inched forward a bit, oncoming traffic clogged. Horn honks everywhere. We came to a stop. A black car blocked our path. The driver got off, and returned after awhile. We backed up slowly, into more traffic, and fifteen minutes later, we went about our way in the right lane.
The driver in the black car was drunk. A police officer saw the whole incident, and confiscated the license of not only the drunk driver, but the bus driver as well. It seems borrowing the lane, while common, is technically illegal.
Looks like we now have an opening for a bus driver position.
