Free Nonsense

* By Daniel Félix Delgado

I live in Vila Nova de Famalicão and every day I spend 45 minutes on a train and 15 minutes on the ‘Metro’, plus 25 minutes walking to work. Since I spend, on a daily basis, nearly 3 hours in “clean” transportations, I thought it would be interesting to reflect a little bit about it.

A new concept of “clean” transportations

To support my point of view, I’ll create a new concept for the word “clean” associated to means of transportation: those with a low or inexistent environmental impact, using sources of renewable energies, and with a low physical/psychological impact for the user.

In my view, the last part still makes the several means of transportation available “dirty”, thus turning their users away from public transportations. I will now share some of the points of view I think should be followed:

Walking

This is perhaps the “cleanest” transportation, and unless there are inevitable storms or dog poop left on the floor by irresponsible owners, few are the situations that make this means of transportation “dirty”. Unlike some places in Brazil [my country of origin], here it is still very safe to walk at practically any time of the day.

Train

I bought one of those little cheap netbooks almost a year ago. Countless times, I managed to work while on the train, replying to emails or even watching videos, whether “useful” or not. Urban trains in Porto are modern, fast (140 km/h – 97 mph) and silent. They are very seldom late, which makes it possible for us to plan daily trips with detail and efficiently.

My cousin told me that, after a few months, the “short” 45-minute trip would become a daily challenge for me. At the time, it was hard for me to believe that, but today I partly agree with his point of view. As the reader can imagine, there are several situations that can happen on a train that make someone’s trip “dirty”. From people with severe hygiene deficiencies (which happens frequently, and gets worse in the summer), to rude people who believe that in the train everyone should have to listen to loud music or hollow conversations.

Sometimes the travelling ticket inspectors are also rude and I’ve witnessed some uncomfortable situations, the last one being the worst customer assistance situation I’ve ever seen in my life. It happened on a Sunday. I was with my wife and a couple of friends and we were carrying our bicycles. Then the inspector claimed that we were not allowed to carry our bicycles because that was a rush hour train when in fact it was Sunday and plenty seats were available! This is another thing that makes public transportations “dirty”: some of the professionals are ill-prepared and do not take the users into consideration (the company isn’t even capable of giving feedback on questions and complaints). A couple of months ago, I wrote to CP to formalize my complaint and request further information on the absurd situation, supporting my argument with witnesses and a video recorded at the time  and later put on the internet. I’m still waiting to know if we are really allowed to carry our bicycles in Porto’s urban trains at any day/hour, as the company advertises in order to promote the use of “clean” transportation.

 Metro

I really like the Metro of Porto and it is one of the best I’ve ever used. Besides being considered by some as a bit confusing and sometimes “unfair”, the Andante system is well designed and functional. The “dirty” aspect of the Metro has to do with rush hours and rude customers, who sometimes make us wish we’d driven our car in our daily itinerary home – work – home.

The low cost is clearly a positive factor. On the other hand, the  commuting time is, at least for me, a negative factor – I was really surprised when I found out that using a car to drive to work would take me 30 minutes, while I take 90 minutes by Metro.

Car

There are many negative aspects when it comes to using a car and they are well known: traffic, maintenance costs and time, toll charges, environmental impact, parking, among others. On the other hand, the car provides more flexibility and individuality, when compared to other means of transportation. And this must be a sufficiently “clean” alternative because most people use it every day.

The future

Taking all this into consideration, I realise that alternatives to cars aren’t that clean yet. Other means of transportation are “dirty” due to other aspects that must be taken care of, such as the bicycle issue, the drivers’ lack of respect and a more appropriate infrastructure, while the bus has other specific problems.

Portugal is, for many, one of the world’s pioneers in the development and implementation of solutions for environmental problems. Even still, I believe that we still have a lot to learn to make these alternatives more appealing to people. Without them, investments in means of transportation cannot succeed.

I’m aware that some of the problems that “contaminate” alternative transportations are related to social and cultural aspects. However, I believe that we are all partly to blame and own responsibility for finding solutions and future alternatives to help in this re-education process.

I still believe that change is possible. Unfortunately, I still see myself as a paradigm pioneer for believing that separating rubbish and finding ecologically correct alternatives lack, above all, confidence and a certain degree of sacrifice on our part.

*Collaborator at the Innovation and Technology Transfer Unit (UITT)