Finally, a full day at home

     It has been non-stop since I got back from Mongolia. First, I had to move. I had three weeks before I had to return the apartment. I moved several boxes a day. Then my father came to help. While he was here, we had to drive to Kochi, which took three days. I drove 12 hours each way. Then it was moving week for both me and my cousins. A day before we actually moved the last of the furniture, my cousins got a phone call. It was dreadful news. Their father had passed away due to his illness. As soon as we finished moving, or more like shoving things into the house, they had to prepare to go back to Mongolia for the funeral. That week was horrible.      Then it was time to look for a parking spot for the car. The house comes with a parking spot, but we have two cars, so we needed to find a spot for the second car. It was a stressful week right after my cousins had left for Mongolia, because I had to park the car at the coin parking since my cousin hadn’t f...
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Easy solutions for traffic jams

    There are so many easy fixes that help with traffic jams around the world. Two arguments are happening in my mind. One is that those easy fixes work because everybody is polite and mannered while driving. Good manners happen everywhere and all the time. Maybe Mongolians lack that and cannot be better than they are now. The other argument is Mongolians ignore road safety rules and laws. Rules and regulations are in place to provide everybody with a safe journey from Point A to B. Maybe Mongolians ignore all of them when they are behind the wheel and think it is "survival of the fittest." 

    Like any problem, it is a combination of everything. One part concerns the lack of mannerisms, another part is the ignorance of the rules and regulations, another part is that everybody feels that everybody else has to give way, another part is that lights change too fast, and another part is maybe the lack of sufficient parking. 

    One of the easiest ways to ease the traffic jams is to create a square where intersections meet (I am sure there is a term for this). The square keeps the intersections open and doesn't disrupt the flow of cars even if one lane is congested. If the car in front of you is over the intersection square and the square starts right behind that car, you must wait, even if the light is green until you see a space for your vehicle. This is the easiest method to improve the flow of cars and decrease the time that we waste in traffic jams. 

    Another one is synchronizing all the traffic lights with pedestrian lights. It is to stop the cars once and let the pedestrian cross no matter the direction they are walking from or to. It is like the famous Shibuya Intersection. On top of that, increasing the time for pedestrian lights will decrease the number of people who have to wait at the side of the road. 

    These are the two easiest methods that the Mongolian government can implement to decrease the traffic jams that we face every day. 

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