As the New Year starts, I ask myself how the future will be. How long will it take until the age of the automobile is over? Has the info-mobile age started already? Will the changes be evolutionary or abrupt, with tsunami-like consequences? And why do I use my bike more and more often for going places, even though, considering the global developments, it seems rather pointless?
If I have business 10 kilometres or less away, I try to go by bike – regardless of the weather and time of year. In nice weather I gladly ride up to 20 kilometres. Occasionally, given an important reason, I take the MVV (Münchner Verkehrs Verbund – Munich Public Transport System). I also like using my bike when I go shopping, since I have a beautiful trailer.
When riding my bike through inclement weather, the reactions I perceive are strange. The least partial of them is lack of understanding “How can anybody ride a bike through this weather?”. More often than not, I am simply declared to be suffering from brain damage. And occasionally people ask me why I (almost) always come by bike.
I like riding my bike – even when the weather is inclement or when it is cold. I enjoy the exercise and the fresh air. It is beneficial for my impatient soul not to stand in a traffic jam. And I also like the time for contemplation during which I can mentally prepare for meetings in the morning and later look forward to the evening at home. When you ride a bike, your body and your brains unite, which makes me feel balanced. Whenever I meet a cyclist – which happens seldom enough in winter time -, I give him a friendly time of day. A journey under the winter sun through a white world is a true pleasure. If anybody asks “isn’t it too cold for riding a bike”, I reply that you would wish to go skiing in the mountains with this kind of weather, where it is a lot colder.
“My” going by bike is a silent protest against the way going by car has become a matter of course in our society. Cars have become the primary element of our social self definition. How could this happen? What is the reason for our high degree of emotion when it comes to driving a car? Why do we invest such a huge part of our economical value and success in individualized traffic, totally ignoring the detrimental effects? Cars reign over us, we even accept the risk of injuring or even killing people. We spend a significant part of our lives behind steering wheels doing work of our own free will which is generally not very highly paid or respected in our society, apart from being unhealthy for body and brains. Not to mention that, in our social isolation while driving, we verbally abuse other drivers in an offensive way that would be unthinkable in our normal lives.
Many people believe cars save time and also have other huge advantages. The notion that individual mobility provides considerable advantages can be de-masked as collective self-fraud. Driving a car is comfortable, but is comfort a virtue? There are many things that remain suppressed when you go by car, and the price you pay is high.
Many of us cannot imagine life without a car, they feel handicapped without it. How could this (mis-)concept be spread? How could the world-wide credo declaring a car the requirement for emancipation and the pursuit of personal happiness develop? Why are we prepared to sacrifice our health, environment and future for individualized traffic? How could the automobile become the “golden ewe” of our age? Have we, maybe, found restriction as we sought freedom?
The more experiences I make as predominantly non-car-driver, the less I understand the age of the automobile. To be sure, not going by car sometimes has its disadvantages, and occasionally it requires some small sacrifice, but I am also splendidly rewarded. Occasionally, I go by car, especially when the public transport system cannot be used any more – which, after all, is the consequence of the dominance of individualized traffic. Then I discover how uncomfortable I feel when, for instance, sitting in a flat model. Strangely, I only find going by car halfway bearable when sitting at least in a SUV.
This is the end of the century of the automobile. And allegedly, we are in a crisis. Our economy seems to have become dependent on the willingness of people to invest a considerable part of their income and life in the much-loved status symbol. That is why we now subsidize the dance around the “golden ewe”. Knowing that people will be people, I think this is acceptable. All I ask is that we make good use of the current crisis for a sensible re-structuring of our social world.
RMD
(translated by Evelyn Gemkow)
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