03-30-2011, 05:35 PM
I am always amazed at the craziness of Asian drivers, and the almost total disregard for themselves, and others around them. Perhaps Japan is a bit more orderly than the rest, but I experienced Korea first hand and up close, for a year.
The driving is absolutely crazy. Normally people, who are orderly, and courteous in front of others, become a Mr. Hyde when they get behind the wheel. it's like there are not rules to the road, and anything goes. It's almost total anarchy. I saw this in Manila, Bangkok, and other Asian cities, some forty years ago, and I don't see anything today, which has changed much.
Take this Chinese intersection. The casualty score must be horrendous. If fact, I was spellbound to watch this over and over, gaining further insight into who is paying attention to whom here.
Bicyclists almost pay no attention to larger vehicles. They swerve into the path of busses, cross in front of vehicles, which may well have the right-of-way. There is just complete disregard to self-regulated order.
In the West, Spontaneous Order is a natural thing. John Stossel has shown on a program, that in come cities, including London, intersections without traffic lights, cause no accidents. Everyone looks out for everyone else. But in Asia.............?
I'm convinced it has something to do with how a society values the life of it's members. Asians tend to have great individual self value, but value nobody else. In the West, there is a high degree of value to everyone in the person's world. Hence the success of self-imposed restraint.
Watch the video and you will see what I mean. It's as though nobody notices that there is anybody else on the road, as though two universes suddenly come together and mesh with tragic results.
It's amazing to me that they don't all kill each other off, and solve the global overpopulation problem.
The driving is absolutely crazy. Normally people, who are orderly, and courteous in front of others, become a Mr. Hyde when they get behind the wheel. it's like there are not rules to the road, and anything goes. It's almost total anarchy. I saw this in Manila, Bangkok, and other Asian cities, some forty years ago, and I don't see anything today, which has changed much.
Take this Chinese intersection. The casualty score must be horrendous. If fact, I was spellbound to watch this over and over, gaining further insight into who is paying attention to whom here.
Bicyclists almost pay no attention to larger vehicles. They swerve into the path of busses, cross in front of vehicles, which may well have the right-of-way. There is just complete disregard to self-regulated order.
In the West, Spontaneous Order is a natural thing. John Stossel has shown on a program, that in come cities, including London, intersections without traffic lights, cause no accidents. Everyone looks out for everyone else. But in Asia.............?
I'm convinced it has something to do with how a society values the life of it's members. Asians tend to have great individual self value, but value nobody else. In the West, there is a high degree of value to everyone in the person's world. Hence the success of self-imposed restraint.
Watch the video and you will see what I mean. It's as though nobody notices that there is anybody else on the road, as though two universes suddenly come together and mesh with tragic results.
It's amazing to me that they don't all kill each other off, and solve the global overpopulation problem.
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"Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it" - Jonathan Swift, 1710
"Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it" - Jonathan Swift, 1710
