I am not a blogger

There are certain things that prefer about Europe over America. Now before you color me a bleeding heart America hating liberal, that is not me. I will be voting for McCain. But there is nothing wrong with disliking some things about America, and loving some things about Europe.

What is on my mind today is mass transit. The trains. Now that I am on a campus, I get to walk and ride my bike everywhere. Of course I have a car that we use, but it's way cool to get to hop on my bike to cruise up to the store for a 6pack. It really gets me thinking about past trips to London or Rome or Paris, and getting around quite comfortably without a car, walking and using the rail system. Growing up in Long Island, I was in the city often so comfortable getting around on the subways. But only a handful of cities in the US truly depend on mass transit. In Europe, the trains are everywhere. Mind the Gap in London. Countryside trains through the Tuscan grapevines and villas. Step on a train at my Paris hotel, step off into the Louvre. Walking, mopeds, trains, and all those tiny cars and tiny streets… it changes the entire atmosphere of a city. You can see so much more when you walk and ride the train. The people watching factor can't be beat. The cities are tight, the streets are narrow, nothing spread out like in the burbs, none of those 6 lane highways and strip malls, I love that about Europe. The apartments you rent are on a 3rd floor above a piazza. The hotels are scattered among the cafes and bars, often in the same buildings, all crammed into the city blocks, just like NYC. Having a car there is cumbersome, just like in NYC. Geez, my dad rented a car in Florence once, and scared the hell out of us just getting us out of the city. We wanted to stop for a bite, couldn't park anywhere, no street signs labeled, stuck on a roundabout, and eventually when returning it, dinged another car trying to get around a truck on one of those tiny streets. But because it is older, slower, slightly less modernized, there is character that far outweighs the Big Apple. Charm.

What can America do to encourage mass transit development and use? I cannot even fathom. Because our cities are built around roads, highways, large cars, I don't know how to retrofit the city around a rail system. I'm hardly a city planner, but surely there could be a way, I just can't fathom it. The money spent to re-structure a city, just to save on gasoline and cars, probably a losing proposition. Here on campus I can get around fine on my bike, but if I need to venture to a Target or something, it's ridiculous to cross that 6 lane highway, the car is just easier. Man, just to walk from Target to the Safeway next door is a trek. In Europe and in NYC, it's right next door, it's just a different layout. And I don't really like it. Every time I vacation in Europe (which luckily I get to do often thanks to my family's budget and travel tastes), I think about moving there. There have to be some international exchange programs, maybe I can study abroad for a few years. Bring my bike, ditch my car, go study city planning, and come back here and rebuild America city by city, train by train. Shrink the streets and shrink the cars.