By Kevin Meyer
One of the first things you notice upon landing in India, especially Mumbai, is the traffic. Rules? What rules? Every conceivable type of vehicle combined with people and bikes and even cows, all jostling for another inch. A visual is always better than words, so watch the first few seconds of this video and you'll understand.
India's concept of rules is interesting. On one hand they love bureaucracy and rules – the list we received for our trade show booth spelled out every possible contingency under the sun, plus the associated fines and penalties for not following them. On the other hand… well there are no traffic rules.
This isn't the first time I've encountered such chaotic traffic. Italy was very similar. And just as with India it was a little eye-opening. It looks like mayhem and out of control, but traffic moves. Slowly, but nearly continuously, and perhaps analogously to the tortoise and the hare you almost seem to get to your destination faster than you would with traffic light after traffic light.
After the Italy experience I discovered there's actually a science behind what I observed. Rules, and even the visual indicators we love in the lean world, can sometimes remove the brain from the process. In India, and Italy, drivers and pedestrians are exceptionally aware of their surroundings. I was amazed how cab drivers in India could cut in and out of traffic seemingly having complete 360 degree peripheral vision. I was also surprised by how in over 12 days in India we saw exactly zero accidents – and we saw one within an hour of returning to the U.S. But we also saw an ambulance, sirens blaring, stuck in the same slow Mumbai traffic with no one making an effort to give way.
Can rules and visual signals, or at least some excess level of them, actually turn off the thinking and awareness process? Where is the line between the minimum level of rules and signals necessary for orderly society – and too many that effectively constrain the potential agility power of chaos? What is the impact on lean, such as visual controls, standard work, and 5S?
Scott Sorheim says
I saw a video a few years ago around the “shared space” concept of traffic (cars, pedestrians, bicycles, etc.) where there is much more social interaction between the people and an enormous reduction in signage/lighting/etc. It seems to be tremendously successful.
Very similar to what you experienced in India, albeit deliberate (versus, I suspect India’s unintentional approach to “organic” traffic flow).
I can’t find the exact video, but one of them is here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuxMuMrXUJk
At about 4:00 of that video is a part I remember.
There are a number of videos by that same account with the YouTube channel name of “SharedSpace”.
Jim Fernandez says
Great points !!
I’ll bet there is litle to no car, motorcycle and bycicle insurance in those countries. I wonder if we could reduce the number of accidents in the US by eliminating car insurance.
John Buzolic says
A very interesting point Jim.
I’m heading to India in a couple of weeks for the first time. Thanks for scaring me Kevin :)
Dinesh Chaudhari says
Kevin
I think you are completely off the mark this time. I visit India quite often and the traffic does not move. It takes hours and hours to get anywhere. For instance, my usual commute there is less than 3 km and it takes me 15 minutes. Also, I find that lack of traffic rules means underutilization of a very expensive resource – roads. If there were rules, the same roads could have handled 100% more traffice. And did you not notice that every intersection was just idling traffic burning diesel. As for accidents, India has the one of the highest number of accidents per thousand vehicles in the entire world.
To conclude, your observations are wrong and therefore I would question your conclusion or the resulting thought process you have started.
Kevin says
Dinesh-
Ever been to LA? 15 minutes for 3 km is flying in comparison.
Martin_B says
I drove in Naples in the 1970s. It was complete anarchy, and very, very noisy (I think the guy with the loudest hooter had right of way).
The traffic did flow, but I think it would have moved faster with some law and order.
Ron Ross says
Why aren’t there continuous accidents in India’s style of driving? It’s not because there are no rules. There are – the rules of ‘position’. You’re not really looking at anarchy or chaos – i.e., the absence of rules. If you were, everyone you see would be running into everyone else all the time. Is it safer? My answer on … http://goo.gl/rKqyL