Negotiating the road
On the way out to my airport departure from Vancouver, my sister left me aghast with a claim that Asians have been proven to have less peripheral vision, thus explaining why they are reviled as drivers. Since my sister is a city bus driver, such an opinion carries the weight of authority.
My response was that such findings could only come from the same sort of illegitimate and misguided "science" that sized aboriginal brains smaller than the rest, providing grist for systemic prejudice and racism.
It's rubbish anyway, as perception of peripheral vision can change with practice, such as the elderly who endure macular degeneration.
I doubt most western drivers would survive in places like India, where the above YouTube video was shot. Don't tell me that those drivers don't have peripheral vision.
I believe that people from India and China, amongst other cultures, approach driving from a different framework than those of us used to driving in North America, Europe and Australia. I drive to a set of road rules and conventions and I assume that everyone else refers to the same to moderate their actions. Defensive driving is a necessary imposition to avoid collision with somebody who breaches the rules and conventions.
I'm not suggesting that all driving in India is as chaotic as is shown in the video. There are road rules and designs that promote orderly traffic. But the cultural difference is that Indians generally and continually negotiate the road with other drivers.
Indian driving is a more complex activity requiring more points of personal attention and trust. Western drivers operate in a simpler, disengaged framework, making more presumptions about others on the road, as the experience has been reduced to monitoring the potential for breaches of the rules and conventions.
There is no excuse in any culture for selfishness or carelessness while piloting a vehicle. Indians and Chinese immigrants to Vancouver need to follow the rules and drive to the norms established in their adopted country. There is far less tolerance for negotiation.
Suggesting that immigrants are inferior only serves to inflame the situation. The way forward is through education, starting with an understanding of the fundamental shift in framework.
Having lived and cycled in Shanghai for nearly 4 months now I have to agree with your assessment that drivers here depend on a high degree of peripheral vision and constant negotiation. I despise the constant negotiation of prices in stores but I'm quite taken with negotiating road use. Seems to provide much more efficient use of space and even time at intersections.
I'm sure that people here tell stories about how bad Western drivers are. At any rate Kodak forbids western employees from driving while on assignment in Shanghai.
Yes, we all need to learn the rules of the road wherever we are. It doesn't help anyone if they assume that their rules are superior since it will just discourage them from the learning the (supposedly inferior) rules.
I don't suppose your sister was able to cite a study.
Every time I mispronounce some Chinese word and hear sniggers around me I'm reminded of how we make jokes about the chinese confusion of l and r. I'm close to tone deaf which is a MUCH bigger obstacle to pronouncing chinese than being tone deaf to l and r.
Posted by
John |
02 March, 2007 00:55
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