'In Car We Thrust'

@wwaycorrigan

The letters-to-the-editor season continues. Below is a screenshot of my latest musings sent to the Irish Independent. It's also available at https://m.independent.ie/opinion/letters/letters-mark-of-a-good-student-is-growth-so-dont-let-exam-stress-stunt-your-progress/a11539009.html.

Walkers of the world, unite!  

The car is King of Transport in Ireland.

Me, myself and I

There is an expression we use in Ireland to describe those who put themselves before everybody else. We call them 'mé féiners', putting an English ending to an Irish-language phrase, 'mé féin', meaning 'myself'.

Basically, you could say these are a type of fundamentalist individualist. 'The greater good for the greater number' only comes into play if it means a significant gain for them. Otherwise, it's not a runner.

No car day — well, not quite.

The selfish gene

Of course, in many ways, we are all a bit like this, we are quite selfish beings. Many often talk a good 'community game', but on a normal day-to-day basis, it tends to be the self and, maybe, close family that occupy our minds rather than that 'bigger picture'.

“Many wealthy people aren’t prepared to see their living standards drop.”

Take all those wealthy leaders and job creators, be they on the left or on the right, who live in a world far removed from the people they claim to help and represent. They are usually very reluctant to reduce their costly living standards, something that might help society as a whole.

Accidental goodness

On many occasions, that self-centred interest, more by accident than design, is favourable to more than just those closest to us. We, most of us I like to think anyway, work hard to have a better living, add more meaning to our existence, and others who we don't know, who we've never met, benefit from this.

This work ethic contributes to the greater good — this applies less so to some areas of employment than others. (Again, what are those politicians about?)

However, on other occasions, and more frequently it could be argued, this self-centredness doesn't add anything at all to the collective good.

Here in Bogotá, a city with considerable traffic congestion, you have those who insist on taking their private cars to work even when they don't really need to. What's more, the wealthier types have a number of vehicles at their disposal in order to circumvent some well-intentioned measures aimed at reducing traffic volume.

“No matter what we do, we’re doomed anyway.”

For sure, similar to many other places, public transport is far from ideal in the city. Yet, if more people started using it coupled with a resulting greater revenue generated to be pumped back into it, it would be better, more efficient and, keeping with the zeitgeist, greener. That's the theory anyway. The practice in these parts is usually a long way off the mark.

Lap it up

There is the whole who-cares mentality in all of this as well. Referring back to my Saving ourselves post from a while back, the argument can be made that no matter what we do, we're doomed anyway.

Our way of life is going to drastically change soon, whether that's in our lifetime or not, so let's just enjoy the ride and lap things up as best we can. 'Why inconvenience myself for future generations when the chance of the very existence of these future generations is in grave doubt?'

Fair enough. But there are greater-good measures we could take now that would result in an almost immediate benefit. How we commute on a daily basis is just one of those.

If we'd fewer vehicles clogging up our highways and byways, practically everyone would benefit from that, even, nay especially, those who use vehicles regularly.

Some people are just a bit too "mé féiner" to realise this.
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Basking (and biking) in Bogotá

We can often be quite selfish beings, or at the very least parochial. 

So while the El Niño weather phenomenon is causing significant hardship for many across Colombia and beyond in terms of severe drought, in Bogotá, to all extent and purposes, it's been rather pleasant, save for the odd price increase in some staple foodstuffs.

Bogotá has some decent cycle paths. There could always be more, of course.

The recent months of decent sunshine and dryness in the nation's capital have been, from a personal point of view anyway, well received. 

Bogotá, perhaps more than others, is a depressing place to be when the heavy rains, as they do, inundate the metropolis. Streets and footpaths turn into rivers, it's cold (relatively speaking), dark and the desire to leave your abode is low, unless you have your own door-to-door transport, preferably a boat.

When the rainy season visits Bogotá it generally makes you question, more than usual, what you're doing here. So the wet weather hasn't really been missed, for the moment in any case.

Now, it must be noted that coinciding with this extended, exceptionally dry period is Colombia's chief holiday season. For roughly the past four weeks it's largely been work to rule, if you work at all that is. 

The country's on a go-slow and will be for about another week. What this means for Bogotá is that there are fewer people and consequently less traffic about. Commuting in the capital is almost fun. This is an important factor: the rain may make the traffic that bit worse but it's not a whole lot better in sunshine when the place is in full swing.

Mayor Cool: Enrique Peñolosa (photo from Facebook).

Alongside this, for the last few weeks I've had a bicycle (a woman's one, albeit) available to me for getting around. Not only does it cut down on rising transport costs but peddling around the city at this moment in time is rather enjoyable — not quite an oasis of tranquillity, but enjoyable nonetheless. 

Using the bike is something that has been officially promoted here for some time and will be even more so with new mayor Enrique Peñolosa, a man who never seems to miss a photo opportunity with helmet on, atop of his bike.

I'd generally been reluctant to use a bike in Bogotá for a number of reasons. 

Firstly, if I'd a class a good distance away, arriving all sweaty or soaking wet or both didn't really appeal. If the class was inside an hour's walk away, I'd go by foot. 

Then there was (and is) the security issue: Where do I securely stow the bike so it won't be stolen? Not all places are bike friendly and you run the risk of theft tying it up in public.

However, right now with "my" bike, both those problems don't really come into play: I don't have many classes so it's usually just for social reasons I cycle and where ever I go I tend to have a secure place to leave the bike.

Water fight in Bogotá: in other parts there's none to drink.

All this could change in the coming weeks. If and when the rain returns, biking around Bogotá will be much less fun, nay impossible on some routes. When the masses return, it will be more chaotic.

Then there's the small matter that in a few weeks I won't have access to the bike I’m using — it's a perk that comes with the nice apartment and temperamental cat (there's always a downside) I'm currently looking after.

Thus, it's a case of enjoying things while I can. It's a given that I'll have to vacate the apartment and leave the bike behind. 

Plus, it's unlikely that this sunny weather will keep up. If it were to stay with us, our water might be regularly cut off for conservation purposes. 

Goodness, we might begin to feel the adverse effects of El Niño then, just like the rest of the country is right now. Oh spare us the hardship, please.
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