(Image from eChinaCities)

China is renowned for sometimes chaotic traffic conditions, and we don’t just mean general du che.  The best (and most hilarious) introduction to how to turn left at a Chinese intersection can be found here.

Shenzhen, of course, is no exception.  The automobile is relatively new in China compared to other countries, having just hit the mainstream in the past 10 years or so.  But aside from a plethora of new drivers, it looks like there could be another cause of poor drivers in Shenzhen: more than 50,000 people are out driving around with either expired or cancelled licenses.

One report says this might not necessarily be because they are poor drivers, but because they were just slow in renewing.  Still, the evidence says otherwise.  Making matters worse, eChinaCities reports Shenzhen has the highest traffic density of any city in China:

The Shenzhen traffic management department estimates that Shenzhen’s maximum volume of motor vehicles will be 2.1 million according to the present number of roads in the city. That is to say that it is estimated that Shenzhen’s car number will reach its limitation in the next two years and it will be very difficult to drive.

That article is from last year, and it’s only gotten worse since then.  Might be time to skip the taxi, and take the metro instead.