Shanghai put its foot down this past March, fully insisting its residents follow the rules in a city-wide crackdown on traffic violations. Shanghai traffic police are also continuing to target the city’s small expat community with specialized seminars just for them.

Forty expats working at the Shibei Hi-Tech Park were taught the finer points of Shanghai traffic laws through a digital slide show and a follow-up question and answer session.

Police officer Wei Wei said Jing’an police plan to host further events for foreigners to help them to become safer road users, and avoid being fined.

Even though expat newcomers make up a small minority of Shanghai residents, it seems they are no less informed about traffic rules than the local drivers that surround them on each journey.

“I don’t think many foreigners in Shanghai know the local rules. Because many people don’t know, and then they don’t follow that,” said Russian expat Vika Korpusova.

Deputy Mayor Bai Shaokang has said the main reason behind Shanghai’s long-running traffic problems was a failure by drivers to obey the rules of the road. Bai said many Shanghai drivers don’t take the law seriously, while some don’t consider their illegal behavior to be violations at all.

Bao pointed out that even though Shanghai enacted a no-horn law within the Outer Ring Road back in 2005, honking can still be heard today in defiance of the decade-long ban.

The traffic crackdown promises to get tough. Residents are being threatened with drops in credit ratings if they violate traffic laws, while non-residents may find it more difficult to get a resident permit.

As an example of the rules being shared with foreigners, policed outlined five basic rules for those driving scooters:

• Double-riding is illegal
• Safety headgear is mandatory
• All motorized bikes must be registered with police
• No bikes are allowed on the sidewalk or on zebra crosswalks
• All drivers of motorized bikes must get a local driver’s license

Last month, Shanghai traffic police brought their traffic campaign to the campus of Shanghai International Studies University, attempting to raise awareness of traffic laws among the school’s scooter-riding exchange students. Shanghai Daily quoted Shanghai traffic police as saying “foreign students are constantly violating traffic regulations.”