When I rode the subway in Washington D. C., I took the escalator
to go up to ground level, like I always do in Beijing. What was different
was that all the people stood to the right of the escalator, which was
the width of two people standing side by side, so the left side was left
open.
At first, I didn't notice this and stood on the left side; Sonia
corrected me at once. She pointed down the escalator and said: "Look,
someone's in a real hurry!" Then I saw a young man run up along the stairs
with heavy steps.
It is a commonly accepted rule - those who move more slowly should
leave a path for those in a hurry. People who have urgent things to do
don't have the patience to stand on the slowly moving escalator; they
prefer to add their own speed to the escalator's.
Standing on the right side, with people running by frequently,
I thought this was a really nice rule. Think about it: without this rule,
people would stand on the escalator at random. Even if the people rushing
up were to cry "Excuse me" all the way, who knows how many people would
be knocked over?
On the day we visited Disneyworld, Sonia and I arrived at the
gate in the early morning. The parking lot was nearly empty. When Sonia
parked the car, a clerk came up and asked us to park in another place
and wrote something in his notebook. The parking area was so big, what
difference did it make where we parked? Anyway, we listened to the clerk.
When we came out to find our car, the sun was setting. My goodness,
what a sea of cars we faced! The thousands of cars parked there reflected
the sun's rays, dazzling us. Where was our car?
We remembered our car was opposite a large billboard, so we set
to looking near there. Twenty minutes passed, but we were unable to find
the car. Just at this moment of anxiety, a patrol car came over;
learning our trouble, the driver smiled and said, "No problem."
Then he asked us when we parked, took a look at his notebook and picked
us up. Shortly thereafter, he stopped and said, "Your car must be in this
row." He was right; we found the car.
So when the clerk asked us to park in a certain place that morning,
it was in order to record the arrival time and parking spot. That was
why when we told the driver our arrival time he immediately knew where
our car was.
People visiting Disneyworld often have difficultly finding their
cars. So Disneyworld thought of this way of recording arrival times and
parking areas. When we expressed our thanks to the driver he said he should
thank us because if every one could find their car easily, he would be
out of a job.
Actually, order and efficiency are not natural to the U. S. The
point is that when disorder occurs, people formulate ways to bring order
to disorder. Compulsion may be necessary at the beginning. However, as
time passes, a common consciousness takes shape, like leaving the left
side of the subway escalators clear, and there is no longer a need for
management.
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