Down & Outbound: The Hub

European Transportation Observations – Part 1

After spending four weeks in Europe using public transportation to get around Venice and several nearby cities, Prague, Berlin and Ljubljana (Slovenia) I pulled together some random thoughts about those experiences that are anecdotal in nature. I begin with Italy and Prague in Part 1 and then move to Berlin and Ljubljana in Part 2.

Venice

When flying into Venice, no matter how tired your are, you immediately awaken to the fact that this is a public transportation network like no other. To get from Marco Polo Airport to the city you must take a water bus and dock at one of many “boat stops” on the way.

There are no cars or trucks in Venice and one must rely entirely on boats and your own two feet. Since hundreds of canal bridges populate the city, there are very few bicycles and e-scooters to contend with on the streets and sidewalks.

What struck me was that every function you expect from a car or a truck was provided via boat whether is was an ambulance boat, a fire fighting boat or a boat hauling  goods or garbage. Why these boats didn’t collide was a mystery to me, and it reminded me of all those cyclists in Amsterdam I witnessed a few years ago crisscrossing each other without incident. (And yes, I did do a gondola ride but only for about five minutes just to cross the Grand Canal.)

 

Treviso, Italy

Treviso, Italy is part of the Veneta and is only 30 miles north of Venice. It serves as a regional rail hub to cities such as Verona, Padua, and Conegliano. Regional trains ran regularly thoughout the day and evening so it is fairly easy make day trips – vineyard tours outside of Conegliano, the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, and the Colosseum in Verona (shown left to right in the above collage).  The train stops at smaller cities on the way, and one must be vigilant because these stations are not always announced. An added benefit is that on the back of your ticket there was a graphic reminding me how train travel was the best mode of transportation for the environment when compared to automobiles and planes.

Treviso is pedestrian-friendly in the center city because access by automobile is limited. Also, it is a fairly flat city with narrow streets and cyclists – sans bike lanes – effortlessly dart in and out among pedestrians (but not recklessly). Based merely on my observations, there were other unwritten rules among the cyclists encapsulated by the snapshot of this older woman who unknowingly embodied the following guidelines:

No Helmets – only children with their parents wore helmets.

No Spandex – cyclists wore their regular daily clothes. Just because many Italians like to dress fashionably did not prevent them from riding bicycles.

No Shame in Walking Your Bicycle – Older riders were not hesitant to dismount and walk his or her bicycle up a hill or in a congested area.

No Age Limit – It was not unusual to see riders in their sixties and seventies riding slowly but effortlessly in the center city.

No Fancy Bikes – These bikes were more functional in nature with front baskets and back baskets and fenders to prevent muddy splashes on those nice clothes.

There is a city bus system in Treviso, but since my traveling partner and trip planner extraordinaire Denise Casey  stayed in the center city,  we didn’t need to use it. You can walk anywhere in center city in 20 or 30 minutes including the Treviso train station. This short video gives one some sense of the vibe.

 

Prague, Czech Republic

Prague relies on its electric trams and a major subway with three main lines. Our tour guide remarked that the only thing Soviets did right was build a subway system that commuters could get from the outskirts to the main centers of the city in a few minutes. (It is fifth busiest subway system in Europe in terms of ridership with trains running every two to three minutes at rush hour.) Since we were staying in the nearby Mala Strada, we quickly mastered the tram system, which we used regularly to take us back and forth to the more touristy Old Town and sites such as the Astronomical Clock. I regret not checking out some of the stations in the tunnels, but it was never necessary because the trams were enough for us to get around.

Like the drivers in my hometown of Atlanta-- even though traffic is slowed and not has heavy --  as a pedestrian you had to make eye contact with the motorists even if you were in a crosswalk. I almost got paved into a cobblestone street near the Prague Castle.

There was some cycling and the e-scooters in Prague as well, but I am not sure those e-pests will be widely accepted. I saw a few people riding e-scooters on cobblestone streets and their heads were bobbling so much I thought I saw a few teeth fly out.

At the end of our stay, we took the tram directly to at the Prague train station where we boarded a train for a four-hour  trip to Berlin.

 

Scooters in the News

Readers of this blog know that when I am walking, electric scooters are not welcome on sidewalks and as a motorist and a fellow human being, I fear being part of or witness to a serious accident involving a scooter on a street. You can call it envy because of my own lack of balance (and thus I am excluded from the Lime club), but when I see a 185 lb. person scooting 15 miles an hour with no helmet in traffic, I shudder, not gaze wistfully. Given the durability of a scooter -- estimated between one and three months -- gives me further anxiety when I see scooters weaving amongst traffic and pedestrians. See this article for details.

Atlanta Journal Constitution Article

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran a long feature article in the Sunday, September 1st edition, which covered many of the issues surrounding the use of scooters in Atlanta. I’ve highlighted one excerpt that challenges the much-marketed assumption that scooters replace car trips (they replace walkers as well). Of course, there is a lot of big money pushing these assumptions. Lime is financed by Uber and Google-Alphabet.

(Click on article to enlarge)

Ten Ways Midtown Atlanta Torments Pedestrians

Allow me to count the ways:

One. Building construction obliterates sidewalks for months at a time.

Two. The crosswalks near these construction sites have long been erased or painted over by unintelligible,  utility company hieroglyphics, which can be interpreted by only a select few. (If a graffiti artist defaced public areas this way he or she would be arrested.)

Three. Yelling at a motorist does no good because they cannot hear you in the din of Midtown traffic. Dirty looks and non obscene gestures are more effective and does not place one in immediate peril. Such vehicle-pedestrian confrontations inspired this poster, which is available at downandoutbound.com.

Four. Driving and texting, though unlawful, is so commonplace that at waiting for a crosswalk light one often makes a game of counting consecutive violators. Entertaining but not comforting.

Five. Automobile detritus (bumpers, side view mirrors, headlights)  and other urban trash like this decapitated sign often make passage on the sidewalk difficult. 

Six. The 10th Street bridge: Narrow, filthy, noisy.

  

Seven. Cyclists often ride on the sidewalks. Understandable in some sense, but still scary.

Eight. Street lights -- even decorative ones -- are often out of service for weeks at a time.

 Nine. On sunny days, notice the brown haze hovering on the horizon. We are breathing that.

Ten. Have I missed something? Please add your #10 to the comments.

 

 

 

Share the Sidewalk

I know that motorists are often asked to "Share the Road" with cyclists, and cyclists often ride on sidewalks (which is understandable in some instances, but dangerous to pedestrians), but when drivers insist that we share the sidewalks is when I take it personal. This vodka truck came right at me on a Midtown Atlanta sidewalk last week. Join me in boycotting Epic Vodka.

The sad part is that this really didn't shock me as both sides of 10th street sidewalk from the Midtown MARTA station to across the I-75/85 bridge are nothing but dangerous.   

Crosswalks: Good, Bad and Ugly

Street wise pedestrians know that decorative, "fun" crosswalks are badly outnumbered by faded crosswalks, crosswalks covered with utility petroglyphs, and crosswalks that have turned into potholes.