Kultur 4: planes, trains and automobiles (and bikes)

This week's articles were all focused on the various forms of transportation in Germany.

One article focused on the fare-structure in Berlin. Berlin's U-bahn, much like Prague's transit system, is unmanned at the entrances, and is based on the honor system. On the subway in Prague, you can just walk downstairs and catch a tram, but you had better get your pass stamped. If you get on a train without a student pass or a validated ticket, you can wind up paying over 50 USD. In Prague, you can get off the train at a station, and a man in a Czech Govt coat will come up to you and say "dobry den, tickets?" and then you must quickly fumble around and find your ticket. In Prague, I got stopped whenever I was speaking English, but if I kept my head down and walked briskly, I didn't get stopped. I guess the trick was to blend in with the locals (to the extent possible).

Another article I enjoyed was the one about bike riding in Berlin. When I went to Berlin with my parents, I definitely noticed that the bike riders were none too happy with the tourists in the bike lanes. While this kind of attitude is more acceptable in places like Berlin, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, etc., bike-riding in NYC is only now coming into the mainstream. There are many bike lanes in NYC (and Ann Arbor) that just end abruptly and flow into parking spots. If biking was more integrated into the city, I think attitudes about bikers would shift, and then bikers could be more aggressive.

Another thing I noticed was the strict adherence to the crossing signals in Berlin. Honestly, jaywalking in NYC helps to balance pedestrian and car traffic. In NYC, right-on-red is illegal unless otherwise stated. If pedestrians didn't jaywalk, cars would literally wait 2 hours before being able to turn to places like the Holland Tunnel, the Midtown Tunnel or even the major avenues (like Broadway). In Berlin, people waited patiently at the crosswalks (not me though, I could never).