Episode: 4
This morning I left the house for a morning walk. I was walking on the footpath my way. I had to cross the road and enter the park on the other side of the road. I had been used to traffic on the left side of the road for years, so when I sat contentedly crossing the road by looking on the left side, I suddenly heard the screeching of tires and the speeding cars coming from my right and stopped nearby. For two or four moments I felt as if the car had run into my legs and my legs became lifeless. Astounded, I started looking to my right and left and realized that the mistake was mine. Here the traffic drives on the right hand side of the road while I was just looking to cross the road looking on the left side i.e. the opposite direction. When I regained senses, I looked at the driver’s seat of the car, where an American woman wearing dark glasses was smiling. I was surprised that she didn’t open the car door and hit me in the head with a baseball bat. That’s how it is with us. She signaled me to cross the road. I thanked her from the bottom of my heart. She answered my smile with a smile. Raised my right thumb in the air and crossed the road this time taking good care of both sides of the road. When I reached the other side of the road, I had many thoughts, for example, why should I walk on the right side of the road or why should I walk on the left side? When and why the line was installed in the middle of the road, when and why and how the basic rules of traffic were made, I had to turn the pages of history to answer these questions, and the following eye-catching facts came to light: “The tradition of marking the road can be seen in ancient history. The first method of marking was found in Rome. When there was a lot of traffic, a line was drawn on the road. However, it was not for direction, but so that people on foot walk on one side and riders on the other side, we see the method of marking with colored stones in many places, especially on the bridge. Which way to walk? It also took time to create some sort of standard. In the 19th century, it had come to some standard in large areas. Although it was not and never became a universally agreed standard. In ancient times, traffic used to drive on the left. This is believed to be because the right hand with the sword or weapon was facing the road. In America, its tradition was established in the 18th century, which was to drive traffic on the right. This was because the operator horse team of the large agricultural wagon used to plough his horse to the left to control the horses with the right hand whip. In this case it was easier for the driver to see the traffic ahead when the traffic was passing on his left side. “Keep to the right” laws were passed in 1792 in France and America. Britain continued the ancient tradition of traffic driving on the left and this became part of the Highways Act in 1835. In the world that became a British colony, this tradition still exists in almost all countries. But the method of indicating the traffic lane had not yet come.
This was not needed until the advent of the high-speed automobile. Edward Hines, a road safety expert, first installed road signs in Michigan in 1916. This idea came to him after seeing a milk truck. Milk was leaking from its tank, which was marking the road. The idea of road markings is now a central idea of road safety but it took time to be adopted. Dr. June Mc Carroll was driving her car in 1917 when an oncoming truck forced her off the road. It was then that they realized that there must be a line in the middle of the highway. When the local chamber of commerce didn’t show interest in her idea, she painted the stretch of road herself and then began a letter-writing campaign to convince the state government to standardize it. Ultimately, this movement resulted in the first government funded work in November 1924. But how to draw the line? Standards were not yet there. This was agreed upon in 1930 and the first manual was issued setting out the standards for road markings. Which roads should be lined? Its thickness was fixed at four inches. Its color is yellow or white. A continuous line, that cannot be crossed. A broken line, in which to overtake. This standard was created in 1948. One purpose of the broken line was to save paint expense. What should be the distance between the broken lines? This standard was created in 1978. In other countries of the world, cars started to become more popular after the Second World War. By the 1950s, gasoline engines had become the main means of transportation in major cities around the world. In the same decade, the street lane system as we know it today was soon adopted everywhere. Go anywhere in the world today, you will find this way of road safety.
Once a new technology is introduced, it takes time to develop rules for its safe use. And when they become Then it seems that the world used to exist without them.
“That which is clear, takes time to be clear.”
Thank you very much