Making sense of the streets and society
On Monday, Kris and I enjoyed another ride on motorbikes. Over our three-hour lunch break, two of the faculty from the Department of English took us for a ride downtown and then for lunch. After riding the streets of Canthou on a motorbike, one wonders why anyone would try driving a car in this hot, controlled chaos. But there does seem to be an implicit set of rules to keeping the mass of motorbikes, trucks, and occasional cars moving. Kris’ driver told her that faster and bigger has more right of way than slower and smaller. So pedestrians yield to everything, bicycles to motorbikes, cars and trucks, motorbikes to cars and trucks, and just about everybody and everything to trucks (I'm not sure where pets fit in here. They seem to know the boundaries of their place on the sidewalk, without $2000 electric fences!). There is no such thing as “right of way,” which seems to be based on a notion of individual rights. Rather, left hand turns are negotiated events, edging your vehicle forward through the oncoming flood of vehicles, announcing your presence and intention as you slowly move your vehicle forward and left. At times, to a Westerner not used to the process it can feel like a nail-biting experience.
Interestingly, however, on our way to lunch we entered this very large and expansive turn circle, drove almost all the way around the circle and then turned down an intersecting street. To make this turn, we came close to 360 degrees and, as we entered our street, I noticed this large, empty space between where we entered the turn circle and where we were leaving. It was the size of a small parking lot, and no one was in that space. Everyone was dutifully entering the circle and making their turn off the circle. It would have been far quicker and easier simply to have turned left onto our street, rather than drive all the way around this circle, but that is what everyone was doing. I found this small incident to be in striking contrast to the near chaos that reigns when one tries to turn left against the flow of traffic.
Despite the appearance of street anarchy, there are traffic laws. One of our hosts inadvertently ran a red light and profusely apologized, saying he had broken the law. Stopping for red lights does seem like another abberation in this seemingly chaotic flow of traffic. Apparently, there are also laws that prohibit driving or riding against traffic, although everyone does it. It seems another way that motorbikes can merge into traffic from a left hand turn into traffic. I remarked to Kris that the seemingly implicit order and control of the flow of traffic seems even more interesting given the explicit and extensive social control that is formulated here in institutional and governmental policy. One of the teachers remarked that to add a graduate level course to the curriculum requires approval of the Ministry of Education, a process that can take three years! By that time, one has either forgotten what the original idea was or lost interest.
So they have what seems like a largely implicit and often informal set of rules for driving on the streets, and traffic keeps moving. We have numerous and explicit motor vehicle laws and our traffic often grinds to a hault. Any parallels here between the policy of the street in America and the social policy in Vietnam? An interesting bedtime question. Then, again, maybe not.
Interestingly, however, on our way to lunch we entered this very large and expansive turn circle, drove almost all the way around the circle and then turned down an intersecting street. To make this turn, we came close to 360 degrees and, as we entered our street, I noticed this large, empty space between where we entered the turn circle and where we were leaving. It was the size of a small parking lot, and no one was in that space. Everyone was dutifully entering the circle and making their turn off the circle. It would have been far quicker and easier simply to have turned left onto our street, rather than drive all the way around this circle, but that is what everyone was doing. I found this small incident to be in striking contrast to the near chaos that reigns when one tries to turn left against the flow of traffic.
Despite the appearance of street anarchy, there are traffic laws. One of our hosts inadvertently ran a red light and profusely apologized, saying he had broken the law. Stopping for red lights does seem like another abberation in this seemingly chaotic flow of traffic. Apparently, there are also laws that prohibit driving or riding against traffic, although everyone does it. It seems another way that motorbikes can merge into traffic from a left hand turn into traffic. I remarked to Kris that the seemingly implicit order and control of the flow of traffic seems even more interesting given the explicit and extensive social control that is formulated here in institutional and governmental policy. One of the teachers remarked that to add a graduate level course to the curriculum requires approval of the Ministry of Education, a process that can take three years! By that time, one has either forgotten what the original idea was or lost interest.
So they have what seems like a largely implicit and often informal set of rules for driving on the streets, and traffic keeps moving. We have numerous and explicit motor vehicle laws and our traffic often grinds to a hault. Any parallels here between the policy of the street in America and the social policy in Vietnam? An interesting bedtime question. Then, again, maybe not.
posted by John at 1:19 PM
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