A Brief Insight into the Reckless Public Transport System in Kathmandu: Understanding it with Operant Conditioning Theory.
It is quite easy and comfortable for a bus ride in London. However it would be an unimaginable moment for a westerner or person from developed countries if they get into or even get near to a public vehicle in Kathmandu. Recently a public bus in Kathmandu ran into a shop and killed people inside because it was speeding too fast while trying to overtake a bus on the same route. It’s quite common scene that the bus goes to opposite lane just to get past the other vehicles faster, many times hitting vehicles coming from other direction or person walking on walking lane of opposite side. “Reckless Driving including speeding, swerving, sudden braking and accelerating are quite common in Kathmandu”2. Over 70% person in a recent study on “Gender and Public Transport in Nepal” conducted by The World Bank stated that the public transport were overcrowded1. In a micro bus which is common means of Public Transport with maximum capacity of 14 seats, there are 28 people at a time, where the driver stops for more than 10 minutes on average at every stop just to put more people even if there is no place to put your feet.8,9 Road safety is a major issue and everyday there are over 130 serious traffic accidents (over 1000 minor accidents) reported in Kathmandu1 alone which is quite high in a city of 300 Square Miles with only 5,300 public transport vehicles including buses, micro buses, mini buses, tempos and taxis plying. The rise in the motorbikes (568,845 in total) out of total of 718,135 vehicles in the city3 is the proof that people commuting in the city are preferring private vehicles over the public ones due to the recklessness.3
What could be the behavioral causes that allow such actions of the drivers in two places contrast so highly and what make them behave so differently? The Operant Conditioning Theory could explain how the reckless behavior in the public transport drivers in Kathmandu developed. Learning is acquiring new knowledge and applying it for the future. 4 It can either be associative or observational. The associative learning is basically explained by two theories namely Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning. Operant Conditioning or instrumental conditioning is a type of learning in which an individual’s behavior is modified by its antecedents and consequences 6. Human being tend to build association between behavior and the consequences of the behavior. For example if a child is given a dessert that she likes every time she finishes her dinner well, it is more likely that she finishes her dinner well in subsequent days. So basically a behavior is reinforced by the rewards or punishments. The rewards or punishments can either be positive or negative. In positive the rewards or punishments are present or given while in negative the rewards or punishments are absent or removed.
There is no fixed timing system of public vehicles in Kathmandu. The public transport though starts in fixed intervals, it is not regulated or monitored in between as to how much it spends in a station or at what speed it is going. Also no system is in place to monitor whether the vehicle is overcrowded or not. The vehicle is owned by private owner who gives it to the driver for operating. Though the driver is in fixed salary, there is no way of checking how many passengers got into the vehicle in a day. So basically the driver gives a tentative amount that is expected by the owner in fixed scale every day and pockets the rest of the income. So every day the more no. of overcrowded passengers that the driver is able to put into the vehicle, the more he can pocket the income on top of his fixed salary. Since there is no positive punishments from regulatory bodies, but instead only the positive rewards in return to his work, the driver is more and more conditioned to follow the same routine of overcrowding the vehicle with more no. of passengers. His behavior is reinforced with the positive consequences as well as lack of negative consequences.
The reckless driving is understandable and explainable in the same manner. Suppose a bus leaves the starting point every 5 minutes. Though the second bus starts after 5 minutes, it tries to overtake the first bus so that it can pick up the passengers in next station. If they are able to pick up the passenger in the next station, there is reward of extra income to them, hence the positive reinforcements to that behavior. Since this goes on unpunished, there is more encouragement to the behavior.
The theory further states that if the schedule of reinforcements are in variable ratio, the response is more intense. In overtaking the bus in front, there is variable probability that the reward of additional passenger would be available, hence this explains the high intensity of the reckless driving to the extent that they could run into a shop to kill people.
The remedy to this behavior could be that the reward for the reckless behavior be removed. This can be done by putting electronic card system (like the Oyster Card in London) where there is no use of cash. If there is no cash, but electronic points, it cannot be pocketed. Thus because the overtaking of the vehicle is front would not be rewarded or reinforced by the reward this will discourage the reckless driving. The electronically collected money would be cashed in a bank account of the owner of the vehicle. The drivers can be compensated with higher salary so that they don’t oppose this idea but the salary has to be fixed so that the very motivation of putting more passenger is taken away. We can be sure that with this system, it will be the driver who would ask the passenger to get off the bus if there is overcrowd over the capacity of the bus, just as it happens in London.
(Submitted for course fulfillment to London School of Economics on Consumer Behaviour)
References
1 The World Bank Group. “Gender and Public Transport, Kathmandu, Nepal.” Study Report. 2013.
2 Udas, Suman. “Public Transport Quality Survey”, Study Report for Clean Air Network Nepal. 2012.
3Department of Transport Management of Nepal. Website http://dotm.gov.np/
4 Kardes, Cline and Cronley, “Consumer Behavior, Science and Practice”. Ceengage Learning. 2010
5 Hoyer, Maclnnis, Pieters. “Consumer Behavior”, 6th Edition. Ceengage Learning, 2014
6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning
7 http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/introopcond.htm
8 http://dineshmurmurs.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/micro-woes.html