Highway Hierarchy

Have you ever given acknowledgement to the remarkably unusual traffic culture here in Sweden? The patterns, behaviours and rules of the road... The attitudes of drivers... And most importantly, the relation between vehicles and pedestrians...

If you haven't yet, then stick around for a few more hundred words or so... (please?)

As a pedestrian, and as a foreigner to this country, I can say that I feel more secure crossing that streets of Stockholm than anywhere else in the world. Up until I moved here, I always believed that the highways are strictly vehicle territory and should be feared, I felt like a zebra swimming accross a crocodile-filled river whenever I crossed the street.

Here in Stockholm, due to the unusual but awesome 'balance of power' between drivers and pedestrian, crossing the streets is a piece of cake even for a snail. In many places accross the globe, drivers see pedestrians as green lights. Not in Stockholm, stepping on a pedestrian lane here is just as good as building a wall around you while crossing.

Drivers in Stockholm will literally put their own safety on the line just to avoid running over you, but don't feel too special, it's not because they don't have the heart to hit you senseless but it's because of the consequences they'd have to face if they do.

Not to mention that, when crossing a street without a traffic light, Stockholm's drivers will stop and let you cross first. For those of you who are reading this and think this isn't unusual, I can guarantee that half a globe away, pedestrians are the ones waiting for the vehicles to pass before crossing. Or they just jaywalk.

This is the only place where a cab driver with a pregnant passenger, whose water just broke and is out of gas, will wait for an entire battalion of asian tourists to cross the street before it resumes in motion.

In the end, there is NO one King of the Road here... In my eyes, the pedestrians are the ignorant ones, the vehicles are the tolerant ones and the cyclist are the oppressed ones.

Pedestrians are ignorant because they know they have a bit more power over the other two according to the law. Vehicles know they have the most physical power so they humble themselves, and cyclist are oppressed because of the fact that they were only given a small fraction of the road and still pedestrians interrupt, but when they go to the big roads, vehicles put them in their place.

-Vehicles won't hit pedestrians but will most likely harrass the cyclist who dares cycle on the highway.

-Pedestrians are not afraid of crossing the streets but more afraid of walking along the bicycle lanes.

-Cyclists don't hesitate hitting a pedestrian who dares block a 1.5m wide road but will fear vehicles because they have no choice but to do so.

So a triangle of hierarchy is form. Vehicles are dominant to cyclists but not pedestrians, pedestrians are dominant to vehicles but not cyclists, and cyclists are dominant over pedestrians but not vehicles.

Ta-Da!!