Road Sense
You would think that in a country with such narrow roads and such a high urban population density as Japan that people would have developed better road sense.
But you would be wrong. Anarchy rules. People use roads here like cows with Alzheimer’s disease.
Which is funny, because it’s such a simple algorithm (which I present here in the interests of making the world a better place):
- Stay left
- The slower you are, the lefter you stay
Forget that business of pedestrians walking on the right-hand side (Japan drives on the left like Britain & Australia). It only works if you have a four-channel thoroughfare - rare here (you usually get two at most, if that). In two-channel thoroughfares it’s a recipe for extreme mental fatigue as you constantly negotiate how to pass the endless streams of kids talking on cell phones, drivers talking on cell phones, cyclists talking on cell phones, and little old ladies with wheeled shopping baskets (who, funnily enough, are not often seen talking on cell phones).
It’s possible I simply haven’t woken up to an indigenous form of street entertainment, but somehow I doubt it.
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Posted to General Rants • 2001.11.21 (Wed) • 15:43
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