One morning a
friend mine was giving me driving lessons on the roads of Chennai, everything
was fine until he took a turn to the road on the right and started driving on
the right. Only when a car approached directly to us from the opposite
direction it dawned on me what went wrong.
“Sorry, habit from the US” he
said.
Institutional
economists state that Institutions work only because the rules involved are
embedded in shared habits of thought and behavior. But what is habit? Habit is
something that builds out of doing something regularly (drinking tea is a habit
for me), but it may or may not be expressed in current behavior. But repeated
behavior is important in making something a habit! (when I wake up early I want
to drink tea) How you behave develops your habit!
But habit and behavior are not synonymous. If we acquire a habit we do not necessarily
use it all the time (I do not drink tea all the time)
Hope this help in
clearing it, anything that’s a behavior develops into habit! And a habit of
many gives rise to rules! And rules are the main component that lets an
institution work!
The behavior of my friend lead me to think how “Road Transport” as an institution
evolve?
Originally people began using
the left side of the road because of two main reasons.
One, most military men were right handed, and they
found it easier to draw their swords from their left, where they placed their
sheath. And so, it was more reliable for them to walk on the left to protect
themselves from an advancing attacker.
Two, most travelers rode on horsebacks, and the
horseman held the rein with his left hand, so it was easier for him to use his
right hand to greet and offer friendship to passing riders., and also, to
defend himself with the sword.
This system evolved to the Left hand Traffic (LHT) and is the
reason why we drive on the left
Most countries now drive on the
right, the reason, as believed by the Historians is because Napoleon
Bonaparte was left handed, and so he fought with his left hand. He thus ordered
his troops to march on the right. From then on all French colonies - Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Italy,
Poland, and Spain - had their military troops marching on the right, adopting right-hand traffic and the custom
endured long after the empire was destroyed. (Troops of Britain and Japan
continued to march on the left because these are island countries, and the
troops had to be moved in ships, and so their colonies adopted left- hand
traffic)
While in US, there was a shift from left to right.
There were large freight wagons pulled by several pairs of horses. The wagons
had no driver's seat, so a postilion sat on the left rear horse and held his
whip in his right hand. Seated on the left, the driver preferred that other
wagons pass him on the left so that he could be sure to keep clear of the
wheels of oncoming wagons. He did that by driving on the right side of the
road.
And so evolved the Right hand traffic (RHT).
In many countries like the Czechoslovakia, North and
South Korea there has been shifts from LHT to RHT. But the Okinawa Prefecture
of Japan is unique wherein there was a shift from RHT to LHT. Originally
Okinawa had LHT, after the World War II Okinawa went under the control of the
US shifting to RHD. Later, in 1972 Okinawa was returned to Japan but it stuck
to RHD until the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, which specified that ‘one
country should have only one traffic direction’. On the 29th of
July, 1978, all the directions and traffic signs were changed within 8 hours!
The most effective thing to be noted here is that all Traffic police had to be
changed, and the buses had to be changed from those with right doors to left
doors, and the bus stops uprooted and shifted as well!
Today, about 65% of the world's
population lives in countries with RHT and 35% in countries with LHT. About
90% of the world's total road distance carries traffic on the right and 10% on
the left.
An interesting technological
development here !
In
China people drive on the right, while in the former British colony of Hong
Kong, and former Portuguese colony of Macau people drive on the left. They
share borders, and the problem here is, how would the roads connecting these
two places be like?
The solution - a bridge with a twist, by a
Dutch architectural firm. It help the drivers to shift to the respective side
of the road depending on the place : (Pearl River Necklace Bridge)
We have all been on the roads
and have realized that Traffic is time, energy and patience consuming, but on
thinking it is an institutional evolution in itself…
