Obeying the regulations

There are many photos online that show scenes of zhongguo shi guo malu, or the Chinese way of jaywalking, which involves a crowd of pedestrians crossing a street against the flow of traffic, instead of just an individual.

It is sometimes no easy thing to cross a street, and it can tax the patience of pedestrians waiting for the lights to change so they can cross, especially as the layout of junctions means all too often they have to dodge cars turning right. So when one goes, others follow, and then even more go in the belief that the bigger the crowd the safer they are, both from being hit by a car and being fined for violating the traffic rules.

It is common to witness such jaywalking and jay-cycling at busy crossroads. It seems that many people are willing not to abide by the traffic regulations if someone takes the lead. They have developed the habit and mentality of following others, even when it is against the rules.

What is behind such a phenomena is the fact that rule breakers benefit from their violations, while those who abide by rules do not. Those who don't join a jaywalking crowd are left behind as they wait for the pedestrian signal to turn green.

And in such situations, when most do not follow rules, the few who do are considered stupid. Such a distorted perception of public morals does little to promote the observance of rules.

There used to be the practice of punishing traffic rule violators by getting them to stand at crossroads and catch other rule violators. Now there are no effective punitive measures to punish jaywalkers and it is really hard to impose fines or punish in other ways the dozens of pedestrians or cyclists who herd together as they break the rules.

The same is true of other anti-social behavior, such as spitting and littering on the streets.

In such circumstances, the rules lose their sanctity and more and more people dare flout them. This is also one of the reasons why traffic congestion is such a problem in many cities.

Apart from education about the need to follow regulations, both at home and at school, effective measures are needed to make violators pay for their violations to deter others from following their example.

(China Daily 10/15/2012 page8)