Teachers at Luwan District Senior High School in Shanghai believe they have the answer to the city's notorious traffic problems -- a team of teenage bloggers.

 

The school, which is located on downtown Xietu Road, recently organized a team of 30 student reporters to spend a day working with traffic police to stop jaywalkers and cyclists who violate traffic rules.

 

"They are some of the most active students from our campus and all of them are from our school reporters' union and have a strong desire to write and publish what they see and think," said Yao Shuxia, a teacher who helped organize the program.

 

The students have written reports about their day on the streets, which have been posted around campus and will be sent to other high schools in Luwan District.

 

"We will also publish their blogs on our campus Website to have more students involved in the discussion of road safety," said Yao.

 

Liu Xiao'an, a grade 11 student, said drivers, cyclists and pedestrians need to show more courtesy to one another. During her day on the street, she saw traffic turn in to chaos along one road when a traffic light broke down.

 

"The cars got jammed up at the crossing in several minutes before a traffic police officer arrived on the scene to give directions. The havoc could easily be avoided if some of the drivers would just hold on for a second to let others go first. But, none of them did," she said.

 

Liu said the situation is Shanghai is much different from Britain, where she recently spent two weeks as part of an exchange program.

 

"We need to think more of others to improve our traffic," she suggested.

 

Xie Fangzhou, another girl taking part in the program, said she was amazed by the number of parents who encourage their kids to jaywalk.

 

Wang Suyun, a female traffic officer, said officers are encouraged by the school's efforts and will promote the program among more schools across the city.

 

"We believe the program will help students think about road safety and improve their own traffic behavior as well as influencing their family and friends," Wang said.

 

"An improvement in traffic behavior among the young generation gives us hope to expect safer traffic in the future."

 

(Shanghai Daily June 15, 2007)