Thursday, January 18, 2007

Jhb and CT traffic in terms of Dnd allignments

Well...

My sister-in-law moved from Johannesburg to Cape Town recently. And well, the way people drive always become a topic of conversation.

Now I thought about it this morning, and since I've driven in both Jhb and CT, I feel I can comment on the subject. For me, Cape Town drivers are very "lawful" to use the DnD terms. The Jhb drivers are far less lawful than the Cape Town drivers, but they are in fact more "good".

To explain this with examples I'll have for Cape Town:
The guy who sits in the right hand lane doing pretty much the speed limit (Speed limit is 120, and they'll be doing 115 or so). Very lawful. But not very considerate.

Or for instance you'll put on your indicator to pass the truck... but since you've had to slow down to 80 to not drive into the truck, the people coming from behind at 115 won't give you a gap. You'll be behind that truck in CT until there is a natural gap in the traffic or until the truck turns off.

For Johannesburg it's the other way around:
They go 140-160, but they are considerate. Or in suburban areas they'll be doing 80, but if you want to get out of your parking spot, or need to get past that truck or whatever, they'll give you that gap you need.

It's like they understand that the traffic is so bad, that not giving a gap worsens it more than actually giving the gap.

It's the concept Mr Nash (Beautiful Mind anyone?) in real life. What's best for the individual, isn't necessarily better for the whole. Jhb understands that, CT doesnt.

1 comment:

j said...

Yay! Game theory! Or communism!