Public transportation here in the South in general is pretty primitive and
pathetic - in South Carolina in particular. The only real public transpo is the
bus system that runs in the larger cities (if you can call them cities) - not
very clean, not very efficient and absolutely viewed in the public mind as a
conveyance for lower class people.
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On Sat, 10/12/13, turquoiseb <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Public Transportation
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
Date: Saturday, October 12, 2013, 6:19 AM
So I'm sitting here in this cafe that promised Wifi and
didn't deliver,
wondering what I can write about, and I discover that my
mind is still
savoring my bus ride here to Place d'Italie. It was FUN.
I got a seat,
which is nice, and then I just kicked back watching the
people on the
bus with me. They were neat. They made me smile.
In the US, they would have tended to be mostly lower class.
Cars and
car-dependent city designs have ensured that most of the
middle class
have cars. And the upper crust wouldn't be caught dead
on a city bus or
a subway.
Here, it's not like that, except at the very top of the
upper class.
I've seen well-dressed, obviously well-to-do people on
the Metros and
buses. Heck, I've seen famous people on the Metros and
buses. So you get
a wide range -- from poor to lower class to middle class to
the
occasional upper class person, all getting across Paris via
public
transportation.
There's a lot of Paris to have to get across. This is
not a small city.
And even if you have a car, on most routes you can get there
faster on
public transportation. Also, *when* you get there, you
don't have to
worry about finding a place to park your car. Parking spaces
in Paris
are so rare as to be increasingly considered mythical.
So it's a no-brainer here -- if you have an important
business meeting
or a romantic date across town and you want to get there on
time -- to
decide whether you should drive your car or take public
transportation.
You just hop on the Metro. They're very reliable, and
they'll get you
there on time.
I've never had a car when living in Paris, and don't
see the need of
having one now. Back home in the Netherlands, I have a car
but it has
sat unused for months now. Public transportation is just so
much more
convenient, and in the long run, cheaper.
But those are just the pragmatic reasons for preferring
public
transportation, at least in Europe. The more important
reason for me is
that it's more FUN. I am endlessly fascinated by people,
of every class,
so riding the buses and trains and Metros that constitute
public
transportation in France and the Netherlands provides me
with a
never-ending canvas of great people to watch.
The buses and Metros of Paris are like a genetic and
cultural frog in a
blender. Given the number of immigrants in the past few
decades, Paris
today looks like Casablanca did when I was growing up there.
The faces I
see are a mix of French and North African, with growing
numbers of black
Africans, Muslims from places other than North Africa, and
Asians. Paris
is a cultural zoo. Add to that the cross-class nature of
Paris public
transit, and you've got a zoo worth savoring. I
sometimes feel as if I
should be sitting there with a container of popcorn in my
lap, it's so
much like a movie.
You learn so much.
There are still young people in the world who get up and
give their
seats to an older person. There are street toughs whose
style is to look
like they're ready to kill you, but who leap across a
Metro car to block
the subway doors closing on a hapless fellow commuter. There
are
remarkable acts of both kindness (common) and rudeness
(rare). There are
occasional dramas, and even the occasional cops-and-robbers
flick as
some pickpocket runs down the Metro platform, pursued by the
gendarmes.
These are straight out of early Truffaut movies, so much so
that I find
myself looking around to discover where the cameras are
placed.
And there are the *visuals* of the Metro, ferchrissakes.
Some of the
Metro stops are nothing short of stunning, architecturally,
even the
now-aging ones. For examples of that, rent
"Amelie" and watch it again.
Jeunet's shots of the Metro stations and train stations
of Paris are
jaw-droppingly beautiful. Yes, they're color-enhanced,
but IMO that's
just him presenting the visuals of Paris to others the way
*he* sees
them. All glow-y, full of light, full of life.
I see them the same way. Although my Day Job may from time
to time get
boring, my commutes to and from work never do. I've only
seen a couple
of movies in the theater since I've been working here,
and part of the
reason is that I sit through two movies every day on the way
to and from
work. I don't need to pay 10 Euros or more to see one in
a theater.
Although I do occasionally miss the popcorn; there are
dismayingly few
popcorn vendors in the Paris Metro system.
Anyway, that's just what I felt like rapping about this
evening. What
about the rest of you? We've got posters here from all
over the world.
When you're "at home," wherever that is, do
you tend to drive or take
advantage of public transportation? If the latter, are any
of you weird
enough to appreciate it the way I do?
