Wikipedia defines ‘right of way’ as “the concept whereby one road user has the right of use of a section of a road to the exclusion of another road user with a competing claim”. It was a baffling concept to me at first, when I was preparing for my driver’s license here in United States. After driving for years here, I still couldn’t understand why it took time for me initially to grasp that simple right of way concept. I had mentioned in my earlier post that it was mistake in my part to take the front seat of the car after coming out of the airport, that’s where I realized why it was difficult for me to understand right of way. It was difficult for me because I came to USA from a country which doesn’t have the concept of right of way. As my father drove the car, I felt perhaps roller coaster ride would be less threatening :) .
I had seen few of my USA return friends, while I was still in Nepal, act in a weird way, I simply couldn’t understand why they can’t keep up the pace with my motor bike when following, why they can’t cross the road easily like me, why they have trouble walking quick through crowded areas like Ason etc. Now I realized they were not faking, I was worse than them. My cause was further made difficult as I had spent more time in suburbs of St. Louis and small city like Lafayette, with low population and less traffic.

Traffic here in USA is much regulated, besides right of way there is also a provision of treating motor bike as a car (i.e. only one bike in a lane). Unlike in Nepal where during a traffic stop there would be a bus, a micro, couple of bikes and few cycles adjacent to each other within the same lane. In Nepal’s (Kathmandu) defense, they have way narrow roads and way more traffic to have all the motorbikes lining up one after another (not one adjacent to another). Also, there are hardly any people walking here. I understood the narrow roads and population, but that doesn’t justify my father not driving within the lane, not checking the bind spot, continuous honking etc. Impression of my father not being a good driver soon faded when I realized everyone does the same.

Once upon a time I used to almost fly in my Pulsar bike, now I was even scared to sit behind. I had to go the US Embassy one day; my friend’s brother dropped me off there in his bike: that was the scariest moment of my whole Nepal trip. Slightest of opening in the traffic and he would just lunge forward in speed, unfazed of a traffic coming in from opposite direction. Mind you, I used to do the same (perhaps even better (?)) :) . I knew that traffic would be bad in Nepal for me to drive a car, so I had counted on bikes but I dropped that idea quickly.

After being sick of money sucker Taxi’s, I finally decided to drive the car. I drove from Swayambu Temple to Putalisadak, after that I didn’t touch the car again. It took me forever to reach from the Temple to my home, I was doing everything right but none were applicable to Kathmandu. I was yielding other vehicles, allowing people to walk through and most stupid of all: staying in proper lane and not honking at all. My brain simply couldn’t process there could be some people on foot who can jump in front of the car from nowhere, motorbike fizzing through in the same lane (like I used to do before), micro-bus stopping suddenly etc. After being used to driving in right hand side in USA it was difficult to adjust driving left hand side in Nepal (had encountered similar problem in US initially).

My argument on right of way was more evident in Highways. I had gone for a tour of southern belt of Nepal with my sisters and Pragya. We had rented a Tata Sumo (of course with a driver), and this time I ensured that I never sat in the front seat. In the two lanes highway, when you have to overtake, right of way suggests to do so when there is no vehicle approaching from the other side. The approaching vehicle has its rights on the other lane so when overtaking one should not impede that vehicle. But in Nepalese Highway all you have to do is turn on your headlight and overtake making the approaching vehicle stop instead. Due to lack of right of way, the driving is based more on the mutual understanding of the vehicles. If one slightly fails to understand the other, then an accident is very likely.

I heard that there will be at least one Highway entering Nepal as a part of Asian Highway Network. Though I didn’t find driving style of people in Gorakhpur any different than that of Nepalese, but for the sake of other Asians (& other nationals) there should be a common right of way practice. Honestly if I had drove there in the Highway, I would have either died or killed someone :D