Taxi Driver Online

More polish, less spit for Shanghai's cabbies


Taxi drivers in Shanghai are to be issued with "spit sacks" to curb their habit of rolling down their windows and hawking into the road.

Phlegmatic cabbies will soon have a sack fixed to the metal grille that surrounds the driver's seat, so that they and their passengers can make use of it, state media reported. The special sacks will be distributed to 45,000 taxis by the Shanghai Patriotic Sanitation Committee to curb spitting in public places - a habit Chinese authorities have long discouraged.

"The 'no spitting' regulation came after Shanghai decided to make people give up the ugly and unhygienic habit and present a healthy city for the 2010 World Expo," the China Daily said. An earlier innovation in Shanghai's public hygiene was attaching spittoons to rubbish bins the city's footpaths, the newspaper reported. But the spittoons were not a success, with residents mistaking them for ashtrays.

Organisers of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, worried about the reaction of visitors, have repeatedly said the capital needs to teach its people to queue, stop spitting and littering and generally be better mannered.

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin