Friday, December 19, 2014

Roads and escalators in Japan: national versus regional equilibria

I presume that drivers drive on the left on roads throughout Japan, and so I wasn't surprised, in Tokyo, to find that pedestrians tend to keep to the left as well, and that on escalators, riders stay to the left to allow those in a hurry to pass on the right.

But in Osaka, the escalator equilibrium is reversed: on escalators one stays to the right to allow passing on the left. Roads and sidewalks seem to be as in Tokyo however.

1 comment:

sergedago said...

ah, ah, ah... Important question so let's go on the web. And we can read several explanations for instance http://osakainsider.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/the-escalator-conundrum-osaka-right-tokyo-left/
I like very much this one: samurai vs merchants.