The scandal exposed about Shanghai's driving schools provides a clue to the alarming number of traffic accidents on our streets. About 47.2 percent of 1,199 people polled admitted to bribing their driving instructors.

The survey of those who graduated over the last nine years, conducted by the Shanghai Oriental Morning Post, shows that the average bribe paid by each student was 502 yuan. The expenses ranged from paying for lunch or dinner to cigarette cartons and cash gifts to instructors. Many of the students said that they greased the instructors' palms to get more practice time and pass the final test.

The so-called hidden rules exist in most of the more than 100 driving schools across Shanghai, contrary to their explicit rules, which ban instructors from accepting any kind of gifts from students.