We came to London, in part, to study dense urban environments and how people adapt to living in them. Using the tube as our primary transportation method since we arrived has been an eye opening experience. While the tube is liberating in some ways, it also means thinking carefully and critically about everything you want to get done in a day. Yes, you can just "pop over" to another part of London, but nothing is a five or even ten minute journey. Many times you are moving in an ocean of people on, then off and mutely following the "way out" signs. More than once, I found myself rushing through stations, running late and beholden to when the train decided to show up. It is a bit draining being underground and makes it tricky to transport items, such as any purchases bigger than a newspaper or a cup of coffee. People who commute on the tube must plan out their shopping for carrying it home can be a literal drag. I guess what I noticed most is that you give up a lot of control.
In Memphis, we drive everywhere. I know I've complained about the lack of usable public transportation, but I also like the freedom of having a car. This has been reinforced to me this week. You're not beholden to anyone else's schedule. You can pop out for errands at lunch and store the purchases in your trunk. You can go to the gym after work , grabbing your workout bag from the trunk, just next to those earlier purchases.
In your car, there's no one invading your personal space and you dictate the environment from the temperature to the music. Your car can be an escape pod. A chance to catch up with friends on your cell phone. You can buy two weeks of groceries and only worry about lugging them to the car and from it into the house.
All I'm really saying is that while I love the idea of more public transportation, I can see why we have a car culture. It's convenient and allows us to be as selfish as we want to be. I'm not sure that's sustainable, but that's a story for another post.
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I love my scooter, but as you well know, it's not good for taking friends to the airport! And it's only good for a very small grocery purchase.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I have a car, too.
I agree with you about public transport. There are many great things about it, but having grown up with the freedom of a car, public transport feels very restrictive and a bit stressful to me.
ReplyDeleteWalking everywhere (if the town is small enough) is better than either public transport or cars! You don't have to plan ahead at all; you just wander til you decide where you want to go :) That is going to be the #1 thing I miss most when returning to the US.
Here we also have "tuk tuks" that cost about $2 to take you anywhere in town, so if you've got groceries, those are great.
I got back from Chicago a few weeks ago and was surprised to see how ingrained the car culture still is there - despite the logistics and costs of parking if you work downtown. Two of the folks I spoke with (for a project) didn't have cars, but they relied heavily on friends for rides to places where public transport wasn't convenient or if they had to carry a lot of stuff. Chicago's public transportation system doesn't seem very efficient though. We also had a team out in San Francisco --- and while every single one of the folks we talked to (for a project) took BART (public transport), they also each had a car. They might not use it very much, but they had one. I don't see us getting off our car culture anytime soon....
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