The 60th Episode : Cars turning right and headlights
[July, 1994 Toronto, Canada]
In July, 1994, my first visit of the north America was Toronto, Canada. It was a long flight from Osaka via Narita (Tokyo) and San Francisco. Kansai International Airport was to be opened two months later and there was no direct flight from Osaka to Toronto before. My ticket was cheap one, so some transits were required. Arrival time was late evening.
I didn’t recognise if I was hungry or not because had some foods and alcohol in the aircraft. But if I didn’t take anything, I might wake up in hungry in the midnight. Anyway I went to the restaurant in the hotel. Light meal was better, then I ordered salmon sandwiches. Genuine salmon was delicious.
Next morning, our customer picked me up at the hotel and forwarded to their office. At a crossing with traffic lights the lights were red but right turning cars went calmly without stopping. It was the right hand traffic, turning right cars never cross with oncoming cars. Is that alright? I asked the driver, then he said the traffic lights didn’t matter and just to pay attention to the walkers. It’s the same like Japan’s left turning. But turning left cars must stop at the red light basically in Japan.
It seems lenient rule and danger, but once an accident was caused the heavy responsibility should be taken. “You can go but take all the responsibility.” It seemed so to me. Lenient rule but heavy responsibility in Canada, but strict rule but light responsibility in Japan. The former is best, I think. The drivers, not only for the public transportation, must grip the steering with the awareness of taking in human’s lives including the walkers.
In winter they must turn on the headlights even in the daytime because it’s a little dark due to the land with much snow. In China, the headlights were not to turn on even in the night. Quite different depending on the countries’ circumstances. Human’s thinking is very interesting. I had a car with retractable headlights those days. This is never sold in Canada.
