I was so relieved upon seeing that the traffic light on my way to school was finally working again last week. The light was damaged about two months ago and for reasons I don't know remained unfixed.

Every time I crossed the intersection, the cars coming from every direction scared me. Without a traffic light, the drivers rarely slowed down. Very often, I had to wait for up to five minutes before I could get through. Meanwhile, the accidents I witnessed made me even more frightened.

Fortunately, the frequent tragedies finally attracted the authorities' attention and they fixed it. But still, I keep reminding myself to take extra care, because this is China. We have more than enough irresponsible drivers.

What further relieved me was the news of new national traffic regulations. Financial liability shouldered by drivers now takes the place of the old fault-based responsibility. The new regulation gives pedestrians the absolute priority on crossings. Drivers are required to slow down going through crossings and to stop for pedestrians to allow them to cross first.

"Thank God!" was my immediate reaction. Those arrogant and careless drivers finally have to watch their behaviour. Every pedestrian in China knows that they are always ranked last in road safety. Cars come first, then motorbikes, bikes and pedestrians last.

If you choose to walk, you have to wait until everything else passes through. I'm puzzled all the time: what makes motorists so arrogant in traffic? Do they who drive have the right to override everyone else? Why do drivers have no respect for pedestrians? Maybe it's because pedestrians do not have a horn to blast.

However, these painful questions actually have no meaning in Germany, which I visited last year. As a pedestrian, I was granted not only with equal rights but I had a higher priority than cars. A car would always wait for me to cross.

The best example was in a narrow lane when a car behind me was driving very slowly. The driver did not hit his the horn, which would usually have been the response in China, nor did he flash his lights. To my great surprise, he was simply waiting for me to pass through the lane.

I have no intention to compare the moral issues here. What I'm trying to say is that Chinese can behave just as well once we have the regulations to encourage drivers to drive more carefully and respectfully.

There is an economic rationale behind the new regulation, as my law professor has argued. The regulation creates an added economic incentive for drivers to take extra care which was not there before.

As we can all agree, the damage and pain of a traffic accident were always likely to be worse for pedestrians. Pedestrians have always had sufficient incentive not to risk their lives. I would certainly not trade my physical well-being just because someone else will have to pay my hospital bill. Hopefully, I can become less nervous when I am walking in traffic.