Everyone behaves well when they are happy or at least when they are not in stress. And what makes us happy is, if everything going as desired or as planned. Better infrastructure does precisely that. It makes thing predictable. You can plan things based on the previous knowledge and it will play out as predicted.
I would like to mention one very peculiar thing which I observed while travelling in Delhi Metro. Even though there are seats reserved for women, elderly and differently abled person, people were happily giving up their unreserved seats when they saw some women or elderly person standing and no other seat were vacant. There was no demand, no grumbling, seats were being offered happily. For someone who is used to travel on Non-AC buses on bumpy roads, that was a rare sight of generosity. And what made it atypical was the label that Delhi junta carries of being insensitive and rude. Even people were apologizing when they were colliding with someone or unknowingly stepping on someone's feet. The sight gave the beautiful picture of cultured and civilized society who are trained to live together. And don't mistake the crowd to be of prosperous and privileged, there was sufficient economic heterogeneity thanks to the low fare of metro.
Then I got down the train and came out of the station. The temperature outside was close to 38-40 degree Celsius, heavy pollution clouding the atmosphere, and here I experienced the stereotyped Delhi. A motorbike guy fighting with the auto driver accusing him of brushing passed him. A rickshaw wala guy shouting at a female pedestrian "Oye madam dekh ke chalo" and she was also shouting back. The beautiful picture of civilisation from inside the metro started getting blurred in the polluted, dusty outside.
So one thing was pretty clear, It was not the people who changed from the metro, it was the environment which changed. The timely running metro, with decent cool air inside and perfect cleaning around made people behave nicely in contrast to the outside where roads were dusty, temperature was high, footpath was hogged by shops, motorbikes, autos running without following traffic rules, people spitting here and there.
So creating better infrastructure and civil amenities will improve people's behavior more than any moral science lesson taught in school or imposed rules to behave properly.
I would like to mention one very peculiar thing which I observed while travelling in Delhi Metro. Even though there are seats reserved for women, elderly and differently abled person, people were happily giving up their unreserved seats when they saw some women or elderly person standing and no other seat were vacant. There was no demand, no grumbling, seats were being offered happily. For someone who is used to travel on Non-AC buses on bumpy roads, that was a rare sight of generosity. And what made it atypical was the label that Delhi junta carries of being insensitive and rude. Even people were apologizing when they were colliding with someone or unknowingly stepping on someone's feet. The sight gave the beautiful picture of cultured and civilized society who are trained to live together. And don't mistake the crowd to be of prosperous and privileged, there was sufficient economic heterogeneity thanks to the low fare of metro.
Then I got down the train and came out of the station. The temperature outside was close to 38-40 degree Celsius, heavy pollution clouding the atmosphere, and here I experienced the stereotyped Delhi. A motorbike guy fighting with the auto driver accusing him of brushing passed him. A rickshaw wala guy shouting at a female pedestrian "Oye madam dekh ke chalo" and she was also shouting back. The beautiful picture of civilisation from inside the metro started getting blurred in the polluted, dusty outside.
So one thing was pretty clear, It was not the people who changed from the metro, it was the environment which changed. The timely running metro, with decent cool air inside and perfect cleaning around made people behave nicely in contrast to the outside where roads were dusty, temperature was high, footpath was hogged by shops, motorbikes, autos running without following traffic rules, people spitting here and there.
So creating better infrastructure and civil amenities will improve people's behavior more than any moral science lesson taught in school or imposed rules to behave properly.
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