Middle son learning about real transportation
The businessman stopped stirring his coffee and looked at me in disbelief.
“You walked here with two children?”
“Er… yes”.
“All the way from the railway station? In this weather?”
I looked out of the window. It was cold and overcast. There was snow left on the ground, and I tried to think of a way to say “We’re trying to have a lower impact on the environment around us.” without sounding judgmental or pious. in German. The businessman followed my gaze out of the window.
“If I was going just to there” -He gestured at a house about 100m away- “I’d use the car in this weather.” He looked across at a mutual friend who confirmed that I was indeed about to use my legs to transport myself two kilometres to the railway station, had been offered a lift, and had declined on the basis that I seemed to have ‘forgotten’ a car seat for the boys.
“Wow. That’s a completely different lifestyle.”
For most of the party thus far, people had talked about cars. The current government has come up with a cunning plan to revitalise the car manufacturing industry: if you had an old car and you can prove you scrapped it and bought a new one, they’ll give you money towards the new one, so some people here had obviously decided that subsidy is good and got a new car. The discussion was all about acceleration rates, power-to-weight ratios, maintenance costs, the exorbitant amount the government sucks out of the poor hardworking motorist these days, and of course whose car did more kilometres per litre. Yawn.
These were not stupid, lazy or ignorant people. They were kind, smart and working hard, in an affluent society that teaches the ethic of burning vast amounts of energy to get where they wanted to go Right Now and Fast.
I decided to go for a early train home. This confirmed my eccentricity: I was proposing to take 2 hours eating a picnic on a train with big windows, a toilet, and lots of space, instead of 45 cramped minutes dodging Mercedes drivers and hoping the boys wouldn’t get too hungry or need the loo before we got back. For reason’t that I can’t quite explain the latter idea held no appeal, so I gathered the boys up and we said our farewells and made a Heroic Exit Into The Tempest. We walked back along a wide shared use bike/pedestrian route that barely touched a road and arrived at the station in time to see the train depart. Typical.
Standing on the station waiting for an onward train to Stuttgart in the dark is not the best place to be upbeat, and the thought of a generation growing up with their lives dominated by cars was a bit depressing. Being treated as the eccentric cyclist can get a bit wearing and I do have days when I wonder why I bother. Are we making a difference?
The brightest light in the station came from a well-lit building at one end of the platform, and having nothing better to do than grump like a nordic playwright, I went over to investigate. It was a sizeable multi-storey bike park, secure and enclosed, and absolutely full of bikes. There’s hope yet.
The picnic/train ride was fun too.
12 comments
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March 10, 2009 at 11:02 am
Karl McCracken
Nice point on the ease of rail travel Vs the alternatives.
I used to work in London, but we had a supplier in Manchester – too far to drive there & back in a single day for monthly meetings. So most of the guys in my office used to fly. I got the train, and everyone thought I was nuts ’till they realised that by the time you check in / get through the terminal, it’s quicker by train, and you can wonder around, and you get big windows to walk out of, and you have enough space to work or even a table for a meeting, and there was a restaurant.
Within a few months, most of the guys were on the train with me.
March 10, 2009 at 12:18 pm
2whls3spds
We have a very few passenger trains in the US. The one I have used the most, to cover a distance of 230 miles (370km) was actually faster than driving…and much more relaxing, as well as cheaper than driving my large truck. IIRC at the time fuel costs were in the $125 range round trip and an Amtrak ticket was under $60. No brainer. I think by seeking out alternates we are preparing ourselves for the future.
Aaron
March 10, 2009 at 2:25 pm
The Jolly Crank
There’s also that un-quantifiable bit: spending more time actually interacting with your kids. When you’re driving, you, quite understandably, must focus your attention on the road. Even if you are being driven somewhere, the youngsters are buckled in car seats, movement is restricted and interaction is limited.
March 10, 2009 at 3:40 pm
sexify
I overheard a conversation between two similar gents in a coffeehouse yesterday, which made me realise these are people who imagine the future will be exactly the same as the present.
They were talking about buying a new car – a big one – for getting to work. It’s possible that at some unconscious level they both understood that the price of petrol is pretty inevitably going to rise again after this global downturn turns upwards, but neither made any allusion to fuel economy.
Adam
March 10, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Nico
Thanks for mentioning the pointless “scrapping bonus” of the braindead German government. That money could have been put to far better use …
March 10, 2009 at 7:29 pm
disgruntled
There’s a drip drip drip effect of being the eccentric cyclist/train user – you don’t have to get on your soap box, just keep on doing your thing and, who knows, the thought might worm its way into their brains – maybe I won’t take the car, one of these days.
March 10, 2009 at 10:58 pm
spiderleggreen
Right on! Car cultures seems pervasive, but it is indeed dying a slow death. Keep on riding.
March 11, 2009 at 3:58 am
dottie
I know how you feel! Sometimes I want to stop being a mild oddity and just go from point A to point B. But I would argue that we are making a difference. Like your blog – I just found it
March 11, 2009 at 5:19 am
xiousgeonz
Here’s hoping that they become the oddballs. The idea that the man is comfortable and perhaps even smug about being a human sloth… Boy, I”m surprised our guvmint hasn’t come up with something as addlepated as a scrapping bonus. Shhhh….
March 11, 2009 at 2:53 pm
velochick
Yes, it can be a bit wearing being an ‘eccentric cyclist’ but it feels ‘good’ to show other people that you ‘think differently’. It shows a kind of strength. I usually ‘win my eccentric bicycle battles’ by saying ‘it keeps me slim and fit’. No brainer. In the country loads of people are like the people you met but in London, it’s not ‘eccentric’ to be a cyclist, well, not as much. So it really depends where you go. The more cyclists that are about in ‘typical 4×4 country’ puts a lot more pressure on the car supremacists. Even in Sevenoaks, a hardcore pro-car mentality, cyclists are showing their strength and it is encouraging. These minorities are now making a mark in local media. As traffic gets worse, jams getting longer, it will be quicker to go by bike.
Every day I see more cyclists in 4×4 country, on my commute, it gives me hope. More brownie points if a whole family goes out, that’s a rarity.
March 17, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Andy in Germany
Thanks for the encouragement- sorry I didn’t respond. I’m trying to keep on top of work and other stuff: I’m ridiculously busy and it’s very tiring right now. I’ve a couple of posts on time delay so there will be something coming up over the next week…
March 20, 2009 at 9:40 am
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