[sustran] Other ways of doing things

[ecopl at n.adsl]

Dear Colleagues,

Within our transport-related activities, which we group globally under the
rubric @ccess on the Web at http://www.ecoplan.org/access (from which he
divides further into various specific program areas as you can see on the
site), it has occurred to me that we should start to build up a new
category – which for now we are calling “Other ways of doing things”.

The following item by Jan Visser is now being popped there,,, and if you
have other examples that you think we might somehow eventually weave into
something with a bit of structure and thrust, we would be pleased to add
them in this open public slot on The Commons.

This could be interesting.
Eric Britton

ecopl at n ___  technology, economy, society  ___
Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
Eric.Britton at ecoplan.org     URL www.ecoplan.org
Telephone +331 4326 1323
Voice/Videoconference +331.4441.6340 (1-4)
Fax + Voicemail: +1 888 522 6419 (toll free)

-----Original Message-----
From: Jan Visser [mailto:jvisser at learndev.org]
Sent: Saturday, 7 October 2000 5:35 AM
To: Eric. Britton at Ecoplan. Org
Subject: traffic control, self-regulation, and holy cows

TRAFFIC CONTROL, SELF-REGULATION, AND HOLY COWS

Dear Eric,

Several years ago an anthropologist friend of mine and I were being expertly
driven through the streets of Cairo. Despite the density of the traffic,
cars moving forward side by side only several inches apart from each other,
bodily contact would normally be avoided. My friend observed: “They move
like sheep. When one changes course only slightly, all the others follow.”
It looked to me like the typical behavior of a complex adaptive system, each
agent (sheep) minding its own immediate neighbors and no one trying to
provide centralized control. Indeed, policemen were abundantly present. Some
of them featuring walkie-talkies (we called them the talking police) and
some constantly busy recording events on a little notepad (we called them
the writing police). Whatever they did, it seemed to serve its own purpose
(like keeping people employed), but it certainly had nothing to do with
traffic control.

I spent the past two weeks in India and another taxi driver drove me, with
considerable speed, through the crowded streets of Bhopal and Delhi. I felt
perfectly safe and confident that there were no risks either for the other
road users. The traffic in India is self-regulated in quite different a
manner. Cows! You release them in the streets, make it a sin to harm them,
and can be sure to keep drivers constantly on the alert. From the
perspective of complex system behavior, it’s quite interesting. Imagine that
here, in South Florida, one would introduce holy cows on the I-95.
Significant portions of the local radio programming in the early morning and
late afternoon peak hours currently get devoted to informing the driving
public about the daily accident scene. Such airtime could serve better
purposes. Granted, one would have to seek reemployment for the Florida
Highway Patrol, which, in turn, would also somewhat affect the performance
of donut establishments in the area. However, I expect the overall change to
be perceived as beneficial in the long run.

Thinking about this option, I realized that the Dutch have already done in
their country what I just proposed for South Florida. They have adopted
legislation that makes any driver of a motorized vehicle punishable whenever
he or she hits a pedestrian or a cyclist, whatever the behavior of the
latter. In fact, this means that they gave pedestrians and cyclists the
status of holy cows. I think it’s a neat idea, fully in line with the
recognition that traffic behavior cannot be controlled exclusively through
centralized interventions.

I imagine that someone may want to install non-invasive magnetic imaging
devices in cars to monitor brain activity in people who drive cars in
systems where holy cows have replaced the police and those that are still
traditionally controlled. I conjecture that significant differences in brain
activity could be shown in the average driver in India as compared to the
control group in South Florida.

JAN

Jan Visser, Ph.D.
President, Learning Development Institute
E-mail: jvisser at learndev.org
Fax and voice messages:
       North America: (1-520) 569-7978
       Europe: (44-870) 125-7432
Phone:
       Florida: (1-954) 981-4275
       France: (33-4) 902-49275
Check out: http://www.learndev.org

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