Walking? So old fashion
Trip Start
Mar 07, 2012
1
3
8
Trip End
May 20, 2012
St Andrews , Scotland, United Kingdom
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Title: Entry
#2. Walking? So old fashion...
Element of
analysis: Means of transportation in Scotland
Description:
To leave from the Edinburgh airport, I took the bus because the city was a long
way to go. When I got to town, I walked the entire time, because everything was
so close, you could walk the entire city in a day and even less. During the
day, I kept seeing all those buses pretty full of people. Then I thought well
Edinburgh is a big city, like Montreal there are several buses. Later, when I
arrived in St Andrews, I realized that the buses were the main mean of
transportation used by people on a daily basis. There are bus stops everywhere
and you never wait very long for a bus to pass by. In case you have to travel a
longer distance, there are several train stations and ferries all around
Scotland that can take you almost everywhere.
Analysis/Observation: First,
the population density in Scotland is higher than in Quebec so not everybody
can have a car because there is no space available. But then, when you can have
access to all the things you need within a fifteen minutes walk, why taking the
bus? Because you don't have the time, or you think you don’t have. I saw people
getting in a bus and 2 minutes later, getting out after less than 1 kilometre.
For me this was weird but for them it’s common. I also realised that when they
do walk, they walk faster than us and I think it’s because they know where they
are going and don’t really care, like us visitors, to look around and
appreciate the beauty of all the things that surround us. For us, North Americans,
all here is different so we want to discover and enjoy the moment, but for them
it’s just normal so why taking their time. The last thing that can explain this
phenomenon is probably what I would call a "comparison complex". When you talk
with Scottish people about their transport system, they don’t have as many good
things to say about them because they compare it to the European one. This “complex”
brings them to try to make the trains, ferries and buses more accessible to the
population, which is a good thing, especially for older people and person with
mobility problems, they can still get where they want pretty easily.
Pictures: the two main means of transportation in scotland.
