When my sister and brother-in-law where here visiting, Tom tried to figure out the traffic rules. Riffing off of his callings as a clinician and an IT guy, he attempted to discern the hidden code that governs users of the streets in Jaipur. As any reader of this blog will know, the usual rules of the road that we know from the U.S. are non-existent here. He came up with some plausible hypotheses, such as smaller vehicles defer to larger vehicles, but I don't think that he completed the project, and I fear his observed rules would find too many exceptions. I, too, have pondered this question for some months now, and perhaps because of the seeds that he planted in my brain, I have new hypothesis, or at least an analogy to better understand the workings (such as they are) of Jaipur traffic.
All traffic in Jaipur works in the same manner as pedestrian crowds in a confined space.
In other words, think of a football stadium (think Kinnick, not Husky) emptying after a game. Smaller people weave in and out, while most people take turns allowing others to go, often in groups. Bigger people or those in a hurry receive deference, even if grudgingly granted. The slower walkers are passed by the faster ones.
So in Jaipur, motorcyclists, who are small and almost always in a hurry, weave in and out quickly. The slower movers, like the camel and donkey carts or the guys hauling people or loads on bikes, move to the side and are passed by. Given the mulitple lanes (and there are always more lanes of traffic than any lane-lines would suggest), everyone can move at different speeds. In the city, nothing on the road moves very fast for very long.
Of course, this is not a program or an algorithm for pedestrian traffic or, according to my theory, Jaipur road traffic, but I think that it gives someone a better understanding of how it works. Not perfectly mind you--a high percentage of Jaipur vehicles have significant dents and dings in their bodies--but it does work. If someone has worked out the dynanics of crowd flows in an anarchic situation, like emptying a crowded pedestrian space, then they could probably model Jaipur road traffic, or as I think of it, anarchy in action.
P.S. My sister offered no hypotheses about how it worked, but I did hear her gasp several times at what she thought were impending collisions. Thus she provided some interesting data about the system.
All traffic in Jaipur works in the same manner as pedestrian crowds in a confined space.
In other words, think of a football stadium (think Kinnick, not Husky) emptying after a game. Smaller people weave in and out, while most people take turns allowing others to go, often in groups. Bigger people or those in a hurry receive deference, even if grudgingly granted. The slower walkers are passed by the faster ones.
So in Jaipur, motorcyclists, who are small and almost always in a hurry, weave in and out quickly. The slower movers, like the camel and donkey carts or the guys hauling people or loads on bikes, move to the side and are passed by. Given the mulitple lanes (and there are always more lanes of traffic than any lane-lines would suggest), everyone can move at different speeds. In the city, nothing on the road moves very fast for very long.
Of course, this is not a program or an algorithm for pedestrian traffic or, according to my theory, Jaipur road traffic, but I think that it gives someone a better understanding of how it works. Not perfectly mind you--a high percentage of Jaipur vehicles have significant dents and dings in their bodies--but it does work. If someone has worked out the dynanics of crowd flows in an anarchic situation, like emptying a crowded pedestrian space, then they could probably model Jaipur road traffic, or as I think of it, anarchy in action.
P.S. My sister offered no hypotheses about how it worked, but I did hear her gasp several times at what she thought were impending collisions. Thus she provided some interesting data about the system.
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