Traffic can be a daunting experience. And much more so in lesser developed countries.
The first day behind the wheel in Vientiane, Laos my heart missed many beats. A motorbike, suddenly making a U-turn in front of me. A lorry, deciding to park there and then, in the middle of the street.
It did not take me long to become adept at venting my emotions. Not particularly commendable, despite lambasting them from inside a car, in my own language.
Between these outbursts, while stuck in a jam, I pondered on the correlation between a country’s general condition and traffic behaviour. Is traffic behaviour a parameter for how developed a country is?
In the more developed Thailand, with an horrendous number of traffic accidents , the traffic flows much more smoothly. Mexicans, citizens of an even more developed country, mostly park where they are supposed to, not blocking entrances and pavements. In highly developed Greece, but still behind many other European countries, motorcyclists without helmets are a common sight. That was also the case in Scandinavia some decades ago, but not any longer.
Apart from the unimportant frustrations of a spoiled Western woman,
why would these observations be of any significance? Because traffic behaviour says much about a nation’s mindset:
What motivates people? What is important to them? How do they resonate?
Parking your lorry in the middle of a busy street, tells me that you leave the consequence of your actions to somebody else. That behaviour created a domino effect, something the driver easily passed on to those behind him. Together with the possible accidents he may have caused. The impact on society was not on his mind. “My task is to deliver these goods.”
Slow traffic entails financial losses for all. As a consequence, it will take even longer for the country to lift itself out of poverty.
That lorry driver had no intention of doing harm, nor did he brush such thoughts away. They were not on his mind. That is a mindset you take it with you wherever you go, whatever you do.
In order to combat poverty, you need a society where everybody understands, however reluctantly, they all need to contribute to the common good.
That is a society where you accept, no matter your own circumstances, that you cannot leave it to others to deal with the effects of your actions.
Gods and spirits still have a profound influence on people in a majority of countries around the world. A fate-based life entails shifting responsibility. Being too concerned about consequences is not worth while because it is not up to you what will happen anyway.
Does that mean that poor people around the world have to blame themselves, entirely, for their circumstances? No. That I ignore the fact that poverty and repression contribute to a here & now mentality? No. That there is nothing we, the outsiders, can do to help? No. It is sad, in this age of political correctness, that I feel a need to mention this. Poverty is not simple, and the solutions to alleviate it are not simple either.
Nonetheless, there is a reason why some countries have made more progress than others. A large part of it comes down to mindset.
So, according to me, traffic behaviour is a parameter for development, and, hence, part of a process. If you are stuck in a traffic jam, in a southern metropolis, or sit stiff with sweaty palms during a drive on perilous country roads; remember that this will also pass. Mindsets evolve.
That will be the day when it will be further between the memorials along the roads in Latin-America. When you can actually walk on the pavements in Phnom Penh, without having to zigzag between cars. And the lorry drivers in Vientiane have at least learned to signal.
Until then: observe the traffic, and you know a great deal about the lie of the land.
