Since I sold my car, I kind of forced myself to take public transports. I didn't buy a bike yet, therefore I've been using buses, trains, public bikes or my own legs to move around this funny world.
Yesterday I found myself in an Intercity train on my way to Amsterdam. In two days is going to be the 2nd anniversary of my love story with Seb... and it's really worth celebrating. I was supposed to be with a friend of mine this weekend, but logistical problems didn't make this happen. Seb then decided to organize a weekend without telling me the final destination... among all the possibilities he picked Amsterdam, the first city we visited together...
The very first time I met him was the 5th of January 2009, the day I started the PhD at the Institute of Immunology in Luxembourg. Few days after he had a pneumotorax and he wasn't there for few weeks. When back, we started knowing each other while smoking together. Ah... how many random chats I had while smoking! I still think that the social side of smoking is one of the reasons why I'm still intoxicating my lungs. The 29th of March we kissed the first time and since then we couldn't sleep apart anymore. For Easter I had already planned to go Amsterdam with my mum. We left on Saturday morning, it was the 11th of April. Apparently Seb didn't like the idea of spending the weekend in Arlon and he took a plane to Amsterdam. He landed there exactly when I was arriving there by car. I spent 3 days without sleeping. From 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. I was visiting the city with my mum and from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. I was out with Seb. I managed not to make them meet... I wasn't ready yet! It was a wild and tiring holiday. We've been there another couple of time, but this is the first time we took the train to get there. We had lunch in Liege while waiting for the train... then landscapes running out of the window!
I had time to write, read, think, discuss without being distracted by the task of driving or without being scared by the driving skills of my husband!!! Around me there's people studying, reading books, listening to music, calling, sleeping, drinking coffee...pretty much the same activities you do in a car. Only a guy somewhere in the front is in charge of reaching the destination for all of us. Scenarios out of the window change constantly, countryside and city centers...people inside the train change too!
When traveling by car, you pass around cities, you stop for petrol, food and drinks in shops thought for drivers...missing the smell of the cities you pass through. Recently I start reading a book about philosophy and I found in there an example of the joys of driving.
Bias fondamental d'attribution
L'idiot et le cingléNous avons tous vécu cette situation: pressé, en retard, nous voilà coincé au volant derrière un trainard qui n'a meme pas la bonne idée de se pousser. Nous avons tous vecu cette situation: conducteur prudent, respectueux de la loi, nous voilà devant un cinglé qui nous fonce dessus et nous colle au train, impatient mais incapable de nous doubler. Autre spécimen d'abruti. Nous sommes tous derrière un idiot et devant un cinglé.
Le chaffeur devant nous est un crétin et nous ne sommes jamais le cinglé. Le chauffard derrière nous est un cinglé et nous ne sommes jamais le crétin. Nous roulons toujours à la bonne vitesse.
En expliquant notre propre comportement, nous mettons souvent en oevre le bias d'autocomplaisance. Lorsque nous réussisons nous attribuons notre réussite à notre vertus. Lorsque nous échouons, nous imputons notre échec aux circonstances.
Les phycologues ont étudié ce dont les philosophes se plaignent depuis longtemps: notre tendance à décider de travers, à juger rapidemen, et à imputer de mauvaises raisons à tel ou tel comportement ou situation. L'esprit est un instrument partial et ceux qui s'en servent sans prendre de mesures compensatoires sont systématiquement en position de désavantage. Nous devons utiliser notre outil défectueux pour corriger notre outil défectueux: un peu risquée comme proposition.
If everybody who is able to live without car would sell his own, we would have a cleaner world and much more trains, buses, shared cars... I heard a lot of people saying that they would sell their own cars only if public transports would be more frequent and comfortable... but obviously if only a small percentage of the population rely on buses there's no interest in investing more money in public transports. Petrol is becoming more and more expensive for drivers and there's an entire economical lobby relying on our need of cars. I have the impression that at least 1 advertisement out of 10 is for selling cars. Governments sustain car industries because of this global economical crisis and if people stop buying cars a lot of workers would lose their job. But this big companies could always change their production! If consumers would stop buying polluting cars and would start asking in shops for cars not running with petrol, industries would change their production. Experts in marketing do opinion poll on everything nowadays... I bet they know even how many times per days we brush our teeth. If everybody would feel the need to pollute less our world and would stop buying the cars now available on the market, industries would change. Boycott some sectors of the market I think is our responsibility and it's just right for everyone living on earth, including plants and animals. Anyway an economic system based on petrol is not far-sighted: kids today have respiratory problems, pollution is increasing more and more, the green-house effect, climatic changes... Of course everyone is contributing in a minimal part to it, it's the global effect which is scaring. Of course walking to the bus stop, waiting for the bus to come can be annoying, most of all if you're also carrying your shopping home. But it's cheaper and walking is very healthy in particular for overweight westerns. In this moment, world is going on thank to the petrol, but it's going to end and it would be better change the all system now, before it's too late... hoping it's not too late already. It's obvious that the single person cannot change this and that everyone is free to decide what to choose. To freeze the market of the cars it's sufficient to stop buying them for a year and just try to keep using what has been already produced, and force industries to listen to all of us.
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