I already told you about bottle collectors in Germany. They are the people who walk through S-Bahn and U-Bahn trains in Germany carrying bags for collecting bottles someone has left back, or even looking through the rubbish bins in the hope of finding a bottle.
More and more of these people appear. It seems to be a lucrative occupation. Another possible reason might be that more and more people are seen in public at all possible times of day carrying their (not yet quite empty) bottles of beer.
Germany is not the only place where bottle collectors seek their fortune. During my Nordic trip, I saw cyclists both in Bergen and Copenhagen who had special baskets attached to their bikes for collecting empty bottles from rubbish bins on public squares. Very professional. I used to believe that we Germans are the only ones with the bottle deposit system.
Now, the poor Germans adolescents found a new source of income. In Berlin, and I am sure soon in other big cities too, young people stand at the exits of big public railway stations and beg passengers to give them their still valid tickets! Then they sell them on to the next passengers.
This made me thoughtful. Initially, I was scandalized, but now I feel maybe it is not such a stupid thing to do. After all, it is only a logical continuance of the existing “abuse” (?) practiced with the “Bayern-Ticket”. Before they start their journey, some people look for fellow travellers in order to lower the cost per person (which is rather detrimental for the ex-German Bundesbahn). Eventually, the ticket is handed on and the list of names on the ticket grows from one, to two, three, or even five.
I, too, feel regret when arriving at home with a day ticket and then there is neither time nor a reason to ride back into the city. In a way, it is a pity to waste the still valid ticket. The same is true when I buy a single ticket at Unterhaching and then exit the train at Ostbahnhof (after all, I would be permitted to go on more than twice the way I came, until Pasing). That is also a pity.
Africa’s collective taxi system comes to mind. It is basically an original and decentralized solution. The taxis come on demand, collect passengers on the way and let them exit as they wish. And prices depend on the distance (occasionally also on how rich the passenger looks).
This is something I could easily imagine in Bavaria, for example between Ottobrunn and Unterhaching. Many trips by car could be saved and the currently existing bus line might be considerably improved (currently there are two busses in the morning and two busses in the evening).
Car-sharing, too, could improve the situation – so could tramping! During my Danube cycling tour, I was fascinated by how fast all those many trampers standing at the borders of the street found someone who gave them a lift.
But in Germany, there is always just one person sitting in a big, new car, and tramping is out of fashion. As compensation, adolescents beg for still valid tickets and sell them on. What a strange world.
🙂 Or is that the new German business spirit: recycling by using up tickets as business initiative?
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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