Stop Lights

A scientist knows that, when observing phenomena, one must change only one independent variable at a time, otherwise, one does not know what is causing the changes in the dependent variables.

I grew up in a small village in the West, in the English-speaking world. We had one stop light. Everyone went to the stop light to watch it change until 9 p.m., when it was switched off. Everyone included at least one of the constabulary, as the light was easily visible from the window of the doughnut shop. As a result, no pedestrian ever tried to cross on red, nor did any village driver ever try to run the red light (though passers by from the cities who ran our red light helped fill the village coffers).

Now I'm in Dubai, a city in the East. Watching in Bur Dubai, I see at least as many people crossing when the stop lights are red as when they are green.

But I have no idea if this is because Dubai is a city, or if this is because Dubai is in the East.