When I go to the pub, it occasionally happens that I actually cannot really believe what I am seeing – or rather, smelling: there is no cigarette smoke hanging in the air. At least not in Bavaria. Basically, it is inconceivable what it used to be like.
Then I exit the pub and what am I confronted with? Fumes, smoke and noise on the street. But this time, it is not the smokers – it is the car drivers. As soon as I leave the idyll of the recent Neubiberg airport and reach Rosenheimer Landstrasse, it is like a culture shock. I am leaving a silent world of fresh air and drown in noise and evil smells.
Going south, I find it hard to cross the street. No matter if there is a pedestrians’ traffic light or not: I have to wait quite long before the stream of traffic thins and I can pass to the opposite side of the street. And even if the pedestrians’ light turns to green, I have to wait until the last car speeds through on its own red light.
Is that really inevitable? Do we, as the “Crown of Creation” really need these noisy and smelly vehicles weighing several times what we weigh? They rob us of time and exercise and make us lazy! They are designed to go at speeds and move in a manner that does not make the slightest sense, either.
I learned that you can really live “car-free” and not suffer any negative consequences. Basically, it is the same as everywhere in real life: all you have to do is really want it and then go ahead and do it. You have to become autonomous and liberate yourself from being controlled by third parties who tell you what to do and what to buy thus manipulating you towards becoming a trained animal, which, incidentally, you do not really want to be.
And maybe a quiet world with the normal noises of life is some kind of common property, just like fresh air? Maybe we should not continue to plaster our soil with cement in order to make mobile waste possible? And maybe it is not our right to ruin our environment because we are thoughtless and want everything as convenient as possible? And maybe we should not destroy what gives us life and impede the lives of other persons, just because we feel omnipotent?
And then I think: perhaps there will be a day in the near future when car drivers are just as well-loved as smokers are today when they blow their fume over the spaghetti at the Italian restaurant …
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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