The width of the road does seem to depend upon who is driving down it.

Absolute rules to some are seen as variable to others and what is a tradition to one place is not that in another.

When I graduated from St Andrews it was in white tie, not because I chose but because this was the requirement of the institution. No doubt this requirement breaks every rule in the book in the eyes of some but there was no room for protest that it broke the white tie rules. Why this rule was/is there and where it started I still have no idea. But it is Scotland's oldest university and that is their tradition.